King of Hockey

According to Wikipedia, this is the first hockey movie ever made. Not a bad start for a movie made almost 20 years before the first televised NHL game.

This short film is simple, charming and funny at time. There's definitely some original ideas (I don't think I've ever seen a story about a hockey player going blind), but the love story isn't much different from a ton of other 1930s movies.

The hockey scenes are what made this film truly enjoyable. For a 1936 movie, the on-ice cinematography is extremely surprising. It's fast, dynamic, agressive, and full of action shots. Some of them are exaggerated (especially the wall jumps that you will absolutely never see in a real hockey game), but still entertaining in the same way that the boxing scenes in Rocky are fun to watch. The 1930s arena is also a fun and rare thing to see if you like hockey history.

If you are a hockey fan, I recommend it.

I had the feeling that Warner Bros. was trying to showcase some up and coming stars near the start of their careers: both Dick Purcell and Wayne Morris started to get onscreen billing in 1936, and a hockey sports drama was chosen because Purcell was on the Fordham University hockey team and had experience playing the game. His hockey sequences look pretty good, but Morris looked very uncoordinated as the goalie. With the exception of Max Hoffman Jr., who you never see playing very much, the other players were hired from the University of Southern California and Loyola University hockey teams, making the action on the ice look very good indeed. The female leads, lovely Anne Nagel and her cute kid sister, Ann Gilles, were easy to enjoy, and the plot, involving gamblers trying to get Purcell to throw games, was the passable but predictable. Hockey fans will like this film, if only for action.

Hollywood had many sad stories, but here is a swift, engaging yarn, starring four attractive, capable actors, who all died at a rather young age, with the two men playing professional athletes: Dick Purcell (38), Wayne Morris (45), Anne Nagel (50), and, as the paradigmatic pretty and dizzy blonde, Marie Wilson (56). It seems that people who entertain others should have a happier fate. The story is not much, but it involves friendship and forgiveness and the proud, self-reliance of the main character. Movies about boxing, baseball, football, running, horse-racing, and track and field are more common, but despite "Slap Shot" (1977), hockey is a rarity.

Gabby Dugan gets a wing position with the Violets, the current Tri State champs, and instantly becomes the star of the league. Gabby's main interest becomes Kathleen O'Rourke, a socialite, who seems to be playing hard to get. Jumbo Mullins (goalie and roommate of Gabby) and Coach Trotter, seem to think that Gabby is sacrificing the team's playoff chances by focusing his attention to Kathleen and their suspicion is further heightened when Jumbo finds a payoff from known gambler Torga for Gabby not to play at his best. When Jumbo confronts Gabby with his accusations, he conks Gabby on the head with his stick, which lands Gabby in the hospital. The injury proves to be more serious than Gabby thinks, since his play goes down drastically which forces Trotter to kick him off the team, with accusations of throwing games, but Gabby soon realizes that the injury will leave him blind. It's a hokey melodrama with nothing really standing out as being special (perhaps the exception is Marie Wilson, giving a preview of her My Friend Irma role). The sound engineering on the film is really sub-par and the script does too neat a job trying to resolve all the points of the story. All in all, it's not that bad a film considering the sports star consorting with gamblers storyline has been done to death many times over. Rating, 4.

Back years, years ago, B-movie actor Dick Purcell played in quite a variety of lower-budgeted pictures for Warner Brothers. He also happened to be the first Captain America. Here in a pre-Captain role, Purcell shows off his skills on the ice, as he stars in a hockey film--something VERY unique since hockey was far from a popular sport back in the day. However, instead of the original six NHL teams (Rangers, Blackhawks, Bruins, Canadians, Maple Leafs and Red Wings), this one features teams from the same cities but with names like 'the Violets'!!

When the film begins, Gabby Dugan (Purcell) is a college hockey star who gains the attention of the New York Violets' manager. Soon, he's playing for the Violets and is a star. But in addition to focusing all his attention on the game, he also spends a lot of his energy focusing on a pretty young lady, Kathleen (Anne Nagel).

Now here is where the plot gets pretty stupid. Dugan manages to convince Kathleen to come to the games and he gets her seats next to the penalty box. Then, he deliberately commits fouls in order to be sent to the box--where he makes time with her. Now his roommate, Jumbo (Wayne Morris) thinks that Dugan is deliberately getting sent to the penalty box because he's taking money from gamblers. What's worse is that he suffers a concussion and it affects his vision...and now his coach thinks he's on the take as well!

As a hockey fan, I enjoyed seeing the film because it showed how insanely rugged the game was back in the day. No Plexiglas to protect the audience, no helmets and, worst of all, no face protection for the goalies! But, as a movie fan, I couldn't help but think the plot was kinda dopey...rather second-rate. After all, it just didn't make sense. Why wouldn't Dugan tell Jumbo and the team that he suffered vision problems as a result of the blow? And, going to the penalty box just so you can make time with your girl?! Huh?! The bottom line is that if you are hockey fan it's worth seeing...otherwise, it's just a cheap B-movie.

NOTE: Apparently Purcell played hockey for Fordham, so this would explain how he was so nimble on those skates!