Iron Man

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

The film begins with a crowded auditorium booing the champ, Coke Mason (Jeff Chandler), as he enters the ring for a title defense. His wife who is there in the audience has a flashback and you see Coke going from coal miner (a rather obvious name for a coal miner, I know) to champion. He had no interest in boxing...mostly because when Coke loses his temper he only wants to kill his opponent...an urge Coke has kept in check all his life. But his wife and brother push and push him until ultimately he enters the ring....and is reviled by most everyone due to his being a dirty fighter. What's next? See the film.

This is a mediocre film in a genre filled with excellent boxing movies. Much of what happens is pretty predictable and the character played by Rock Hudson is pretty poorly written and acted...plus Hudson was all wrong to be playing a boxer. Overall, a decent time-passer and not a lot more to it than that.

Now I did struggle with the idea of Jeff Chandler as a red-misted boxing champion, but here he acquits him self adequately enough. He's coal miner "Coke" who dreams of wedding his girl "Rose" (Evelyn Keyes) and buying a radio store. His rather more venal brother "George" (Stephen McNally) runs a pool hall and discovers that when his sibling gets cross, really cross, his fists can do his talking for him. The ring beckons, and success follows - but at a price. "Coke" is a brute. He fights legal, but dirty - and the crowd gradually learn to loathe him. Finally he has had enough and wants to stop, but discovers that his now wife is embroiled in some match-fixing with "George" and he faces quite a dilemma - one epitomised at the denouement with a bout with the equally unlikely pugilist Rock Hudson ("Speed"). It's another of the stories set in an industrial town where opportunities were scant and where boxing was a route out if you were prepared to take and give a beating. This one tries to introduce the concept of a conscience in the lead character and the photography does give some sort of indication as to the brutality in the ring. It's a solid film that has just about enough action and a message to convey about right (hooks) and wrong.

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?

This film is a remake of Iron Man of 1931 with Lew Ayres and Jean Harlow, also made in 1937 as Some Blondes are Dangerous, but here Evelyn Keyes, the blonde is not the central character. Jeff Chandler, Rock Hudson and James Arness are workers in a mine and also boxers. Chandler wins his fights when he hates and gets furious, he becomes an animal and also the public does not like him. Rock Hudson is the nice guy and Evelyn Keyes is Chandler's girlfriend and Stephen McNally his brother and also agent. The fight scenes do not look very real, specially when Chandler gets punched on the face, it does not seem to affect him, it is almost like he does not defend himself, he only cares about hitting. I think that in a real fight he would be knocked out in a couple of minutes fighting this way. The film is interesting, specially because of the presence of Hudson and Arness at the beginning of their careers.