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A coal miner who dreams of his own radio shop is lured into a boxing ring where he becomes a kind of animal hated by the public. Box is a film genre that remains to this day committed to tradition. It underwent few changes in dramatic elements or peculiarities of plots. Old scripts used to tell the same stories. They hardly become outdated. (Take the Rocky franchise for example) Most often (like here) it's the story of a poor guy who finds self-fulfillment in fighting, in order to be successful. At the same time either old friends break with him or he with them. Finally, a decision must be made as to whether the hero will look back to his former values or allow success within such a brutal business lose him in every respect. Director Joseph Pevney has some interesting titles in his filmography, but Iron Man surely isn't the best one.

Jeff Chandler is a coal miner who wants to open a radio store with his girl, Evelyn Keyes. His brother, Stephen McNally, manages him, as much as anyone can. In the ring, Chandler turns into an animal, barely held back from killing his opponents. Sports columnist Jim Backus keeps writing that he should be thrown out of boxing. When Miss Keyes and McNally pay off another boxer to throw the fight, and Chandler finds out, he walks out, determined to become the world champion and earn the respect of the booing crowds.

I haven't seen the 1931 version of this movie, in which Tod Browning directs Lew Ayres in the lead role, but this is as brutal a movie as the Production Code would permit. Carl Guthrie's camerawork makes Chandler look like an animal during the matches. While there's some pop psychology to explain Chandler's savagery, that is the point of this effective movie.

Bob

Can it be merely coincidence, even in the relative innocence of 1951, that the boxers in Iron Man go by the names of Coke and Speed? (The fact that they're played by Jeff Chandler and Rock Hudson, whom viewers today will identify as, respectively, a cross-dresser and a gay man, adds another latter-day dimension to their sweat-lubricated clinches.) In any case, their stimulating monikers do no injustice to the story – a jacked-up, strung-out fight movie that's a worthy entry in that oddly distinguished, brutal genre.

It starts in Coaltown, Pennsylvania, a mining community where the only excitement is wondering when the shafts will cave in. When Chandler takes on a bully and thoroughly thrashes him, his brother (Steve McNally) and girl (Evelyn Keyes) see a glamorous future and fast money for him – and for them. The only catch is that Chandler isn't a born boxer: He's clumsy and gets pummeled. But when he's hurt (and then jeered at), he falls into blind, murderous rages, going after his opponents by fair means or foul. He wins purses and titles but not the hearts of the fans – they don't like dirty fighters, and come only in hopes of seeing him get his comeuppance. But they keep coming, and soon Chandler's poised for the heavyweight title.

The story, ably directed by Joseph Pevney, follows a familiar course: The fallings-out with his brother and his wife, the big-time sportswriter who becomes his manager (Jim Backus), the fixed fight, the fallacious sense of invincibility. And the ending is a little too pat and feel-good. But it's one of Chandler's best roles (he's as good as Kirk Douglas in The Champion, if not so convincing as Robert Ryan in The Set-Up, both of two years earlier). Evelyn Keyes has but two things to do: First egg him on, then beg him to stop, but she's, as always, distinctive. (She gets slugged by him, too.)

Hudson's another case entirely. In the part of the loyal sparring-partner who turns into the challenger, he's confined to playing L'il Abner – a good-natured but dim-witted lout. But in the final grudge-match, he reverts to the sheer, feral physicality of which he was capable but rarely called upon to display – and, in its final scene, he all but steals the movie away from Chandler. He's the breakout star.

An interesting artifact from 1951, "Iron Man" stars Jeff Chandler, Evelyn Keyes, Stephen McNally, Jim Backus, and Rock Hudson.

I will start out by saying I was incredibly distracted by Rock Hudson's high, nasal speaking voice. It's not unusual as a person ages for their voice to drop, especially if they smoked. I don't know if Hudson smoked, but I do know he had surgery to lower his voice.

The surgeon removes a layer of cartilege from the vocal cords. This makes the cords less taut and lowers the pitch. The consequence of that was that he was unable to sing. After hearing him in this movie, it was a small price to pay.

The story concerns a man, Coke Mason (Chandler), a coal miner, whose brother (McNally) wants him to become a professional boxer. His girlfriend (Keyes) does as well, because of the money.

Coke's problem is that when he is hurt in a fight, and the audience boos him, he goes into a rage and becomes a killing machine, usually having to be dragged off of his opponent. He's what is known as a dirty fighter, and the fight audiences hate him.

Originally he wants to quit; then he decides against it and wants to go for the title. By the time he gets to the title, his opponent is Speed (Hudson), a fellow coal miner worker who used to work in Coke's corner during fights.

Chandler and Hudson are unbelievably young in this film. The fight sequences aren't very good, probably because Chandler and Hudson were being marketed as hunks, and the film was intended to appeal to women.

The acting was okay; Rock frankly had a way to go in the acting department.

One of the reviews mentioned Jeff Chandler was a cross-dresser. Jane Russell claims Esther made it up to sell more books, as Williams confided in her often about her affair with Chandler and somehow never managed to mention his cross-dressing. As another actress pointed out, what the heck would he have worn? He was huge. And nobody else saw it?

In another few years coal miner turned boxer turned actor Charles Bronson would have been perfect to star in this film which was almost autobiographical in his case. Like Jeff Chandler in this film, Bronson was brought up in the Pennsylvania coal mining country and took up boxing before acting as a way out of some dire poverty.

Chandler plays coal miner Coke Mason who only wants to earn enough money to start a business and get married to Evelyn Keyes. But his brother Stephen McNally sees a future in Chandler's fists and wants to manage him.

Chandler has one thing that can't be taught. He has a murderous punch and a killer instinct in the ring. Lots of fighters have that, two of the most prominent were Jack Dempsey and Rocky Graziano. In fact in that aspect this version of Iron Man is close to the Graziano film Somebody Up There Likes Me.

The main weakness in the film is there is no real explanation for why Chandler is such an animal in the ring. Especially since one of the supporting characters is Rock Hudson who is from those same mines and also becomes a boxer, but he uses skill and speed and is a fan favorite. Chandler is as unpopular as one of Vince McMahon's patented wresting villains.

It's a good boxing film, but this version of Iron Man will never rank with a film like Champion where another prize fighter has a killer instinct.