Tennessee Champ

Cute light comedy/drama is more notable for the sly humor between Shelley Winters and Keenan Wynn than its rather far-fetched story about raising money to bankroll a tabernacle through boxing.

This was Shelley's first film after a period off screen due to the birth of her daughter and she looks great. Shot in vivid color with Shelley dressed in some very striking ensembles, one hat she wears looks like she has a red & white mint on top her head!, and plush surroundings standard for MGM. You would never realize this was made on a low budget since it looks better than many films shot today. Dewey Martin doesn't really stand out in the lead although he's earnest enough. He's certainly in peak physical condition much more so than was typical at the time and the script provides almost endless opportunities for him to show his physique. Also in the cast are two actors, Earl Holliman and Charles Bronson, who would rise to prominence over the next couple of decades.

As for the story, which is similar to 1956's The Leather Saint with John Derek as a boxing priest and Paul Douglas his manager, it's pretty corny but not enough to spoil the pleasure of the viewer's experience. No great shakes but a fun diversion.

If you liked the old boxing flick Kid Galahad, you can check out a similar version that's not nearly as good: Tennessee Champ. It features a hardened boxing manager with a fiancé he strings along and won't marry, and when a squeaky clean kid with a talent for fighting comes along, he tries to make him a champ without suspecting the kid's good manners will win over his girlfriend. Sound familiar?

The cast in this one is Keenan Wynn, Shelley Winters, and Dewey Martin as the Tennessee Champ. He's very religious and would rather be a preacher than a boxer, but Keenan talks him into it, saying that he can donate all his profits to the church. That part of the plot is very silly, because it implies that he is moron, not merely a man of God. Shelley has a throwaway part, because she doesn't have a love triangle and mainly bickers with Keenan whenever she's on the screen. If you recognize the cutie pie in the first five minutes of the movie, it is a pre-famous Charles Bronson (billed as Charles Buchinsky). For the life of me, I couldn't figure out why he wasn't the lead, especially since he and Dewey Martin resembled each other.

You'll also see Earl Holliman as Keenan's assistant who took too many blows to the head. However, no one really stands out in this movie. The cutest part is during Dewey's first match. He thinks Earl is going to go easy on him as promised, but when he stops pulling his punches, Dewey, says, "That hurts, now stop it, please!" Besides that, and Charles Bronson, you're better off with Kid Galahad.

"The Lord in My Corner" could have been an alternate title for this slight, but relatively enjoyable boxing film. Wynn is a conman who is always looking for the best way to score another buck. He happens upon preacher's son Martin, who is on the lam after slugging (and possibly killing) a thug who was chasing him. With the help of his wife (Winters), Wynn proceeds to turn Martin into a fast-rising boxing celebrity while Martin socks his percentage of the money away to fund his father's church. Wynn is after the dough while Martin feels he is fighting for God's cause. Winters is on hand basically to keep Wynn in line and knit in the audience during all the bouts (and apparently works on the same product ad nauseam, the world's longest-taking muffler!) It isn't all quite as pious and dry as it sounds, thanks mostly to a fairly lively cast of mostly familiar faces. Wynn does a good job as the chiseler who is always on the verge of turning good. Winters is a tad shrill occasionally and her part is only marginally interesting, but she and Wynn share a nice chemistry. Martin is utterly adorable and exceedingly fit and sexy. His character is endearingly naive and charming and his first attempt at boxing involves a pair of oversized shorts which occasionally reveal the tiniest hint of tan line on his yummy little frame. Also on board is Holliman as a dim-witted palooka who (in a sometimes excruciatingly-annoying running gag) keeps a harmonica in his mouth and provides background music with it! Then there's Bronson as a menacing, wiry, infamous prizefighter who Martin has to defeat in the climactic showdown. The story is pat and trite and contrived in the extreme, but it's also endearing in its simplicity and sincerity of performances. A couple of nagging questions: Why would Martin, a preacher's son, not be able to read? Wouldn't pop want him to be able to study the Bible? Also, why does Martin need to follow a hymn book for "Old Time Religion", a song he would have surely known by heart if he knew the Bible by heart? These things, and the unlikely coincidence of Bronson being the fighter at the end, betray the amateurish nature of the script, but there are worse way to spend an hour and a half.

Here we go off to the boxing ring once again. This movie was a great boxing movie. I just saw last year for the first time and it was delightful. There is a new boxer in town so you better watch your step before he wants to get you into the boxing ring to win some money so he can send it back home. The guy (Boxer) is disparately seeking money and he will do whatever it takes to get it! I enjoy watching this movie over and over again.

Somewhere in a town on the Mississippi, clueless religious son of a reverend, Daniel Norson, mistakenly thinks that he has killed a man in a street fight and hooks up with unscrupulous boxing manager Willy Wurble (Keenan Wynn). Sarah (Shelley Winters) is Willy's wife. Happy Jackfield is their other idiot fighter.

I like the comedic tone and the attempt at humor. I do wish that Dewey Martin is funnier at playing dumb. Earl Holliman is much better at it. Idiot humor is harder than one expects. One has to actually be good and smart at acting. The first fight is hilarious but the movie couldn't maintain that level. Mostly, the lead couldn't hold and the movie faded along the way. Keenan Wynn is really good. Shelley Winters has one move knitting at the fights. It also has Charles Bronson as an opposition fighter.