Iron Man

Lots of talent on this one, but a creaky film, even considering the era. It's not helped by video and audio quality issues (at least in the print I watched), but the real issue is the story-telling from director Tod Browning, which was disappointing. He moves things along too slowly and doesn't take advantage enough of three pretty decent performances and a script that had some nice one-liners. ("You'll get your fur coat, Rose." / "Sure, if I go out and shoot a couple of cats!"). There's not enough crackle or emotional zing in what he shows us, despite the film's themes of standing up for one's principles, losing sight of them with fame, and betrayal from a loved one, which had potential.

Jean Harlow makes the film worth seeing, despite the pretty standard role of a gold-digger. This was right around the time of her rise to fame, and you can see at least a little bit why here. I love how she shoots daggers out of her eyes when her two-timing ways are challenged. Lew Ayres shows the necessary toughness and body of a boxer, even if the footage in the ring seemed mostly canned, and Robert Armstrong has the right presence as his manager. Wondering how this might have gone in a silent film from Browning's past (e.g. One with Lon Chaney), I imagine deeper emotions on close-ups, more pathos, and faster cuts. It's a shame we didn't get that here. If you like Harlow or are a Browning completist, it's worth 73 minutes, otherwise, pass.

I know that this Tod Browning's picture will be remade twenty years later starring Jeff Chandler, but this movie is not the best about prize fighting, it's not THE SET UP or THE CHAMPION, or REQUIEM FOR A HEAVY WEIGHT or RAGING BULL.... It must be seen as a sport drama, a character study in the sport domain. Lew Ayres was here at his peak, just one year after ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. So, yes, from Tod Browning in a no Lon Chaney Sr like film, without any monster or twisted, weird plot, it is a worth watching item. It belongs to the best sports dramas, at least for the pre code era, I have ever seen, better than some Warner movies, which were too fast paced for my taste and above all for this kind of story.

While its age is showing, "Iron Man" may be worth spending just over a hour of your time mainly because of the participation of 2 major names in film history: Jean Harlow (in a very early role) and Tod Browning (who directed "Dracula"). Just don't expect anything special. View the "Iron Man" as a relic of Hollywood's early years when sound was new and (mercifully) running times were short.

After the success of All Quiet On The Western Front Lew Ayres was suddenly quite the hot property for Universal Studios. Following up on that film Ayres was cast in this boxing saga about a fighter, his wife, and his manager. The roles are played by Ayres, Jean Harlow, and Robert Armstrong.

As long as Ayres follows Armstrong's instructions he's a success. And one of those instructions is to get rid of his gold digging wife Harlow. It's not jealousy working here, Armstrong can plainly see the adverse affect Harlow has on Ayres and that he's not got his head in the ring when she's around.

When she's not around Armstrong guides Ayres to the heavyweight championship. But when he does become champ, Harlow comes back to bask in his glory and also to party with Ayres and her new boy friend on the side John Miljan.

Let's just say that Ayres finds out just how badly he needs Armstrong before the film is over.

Iron Man seems to be borrowing quite liberally from the relationship that Jack Dempsey had with his then wife Estelle Taylor and his manager Doc Kearns. Kearns let it be known to all who would hear that Dempsey was a bum without him when they did part. However Armstrong truly is the brains in this duo. I'm surprised that none of the real life trio sued Universal Pictures and Carl Laemmle.

The title was used in another boxing picture that starred Jeff Chandler and Rock Hudson that Universal did 20 years later. But that film has absolutely nothing to do with this picture. Nor of course has it anything to do with the superhero Robert Downey, Jr. brought to the screen in the past few years.

Tod Browning got some really nice performances out of his star trio and the rest of the cast. Iron Man ranks right up there with a lot of other classic films on pugilism.

IRON MAN originally ran 73 minutes but most prints today are in the 66 minute range but even at that abbreviated length, it's a chore to sit through. One of the worst examples of a stiff early talkie, it's films like this that unjustly give that era a bad reputation when there were actually many fine films from the period that were done with finesse and hold up superbly today. IRON MAN, alas, is an awkward, boring mess.

Lew Ayres stars as a lightweight boxer whose marriage to money-loving blonde Jean Harlow may be the root of his less than spectacular career. When Jean leaves him, manager Robert Armstrong molds him into the champ he always had the potential to be. When his career is on the upswing, a seemingly changed Harlow returns much to Armstrong's displeasure and their mutual hostility ultimately leads to a threat in the Armstrong/Ayres friendship and professional ties and Ayres' status as champ, with Armstrong mentoring a rival boxer.

IRON MAN is easily the worst film of Jean Harlow's career. She is wasted in a cardboard role that only gives her a few scenes and she is handled most unsympathetically by director Tod Browning, who apparently was scarcely less hostile to her than Armstrong's character. Browning may have been a master of horror, but he's a disaster here in the world of boxing and metropolitan life. Lew Ayres is badly miscast as the fighter and walks through the film with a sullen pout to perhaps suggest toughness although for the most part he's a milquetoast, passive both to wife Harlow and manager Armstrong.

Armstrong's manager is more control freak than the devoted pal he is supposed to be and there is a undercurrent of homosexuality in his possessiveness of Ayres which may have escaped the actor but certainly not director Browning (Armstrong and Ayres private talks frequently take place in bedrooms!) Ayres is (naturally) frequently shirtless but while handsome he is pretty dull here. Fans of the cast or director might want to check IRON MAN out just to see another one of their films but will most likely rank it at the bottom of their works.