The Prize Fighter

It's not easy making a comedy about the fistic arts. In the 1940s Danny Kay was successful in "The Kid From Brooklyn", playing a "fighting milkman". It took almost 40 years for another boxing comedy to make an impact, and that was The Prize-Fighter.

Tim Conway plays Depression Era boxer, Bags Collins. Bags has a perfect fighting record; 20 fights, 20 knockouts.............all losses! A perfect record! Don Knotts plays Shake, the brainy(LOL!) manager of Bags Collins.

The movie manages to capture the times and is an interesting reflection of the Depression Era. Tim Conway is at his bumbling best when he is in the ring "knocking out" the top three contenders-Irish, Jake Folley and the Grader. The Bags/Grader fight had me rolling in my seat.

There's an impressive supporting cast and Robin Clarke as "Mike" the mob-boss gives an out-standing Brando impression. The final championship match is well done too.

The Prize-Fighter is a championship of a comedy.

Think of all possible genres of movies. Put them together and that's this movie. With one exception, there are some great gangster types. Art direction and cinematography is excellent, if at times looking as though every prop from every movie in Hollywood was added to the sets.

This movie might have been tolerable, without the puerile approach with Knotts and Conway, whose attempts at slapstick are but slaps with a stick.

Tim Conway and Don Knotts team up for a 20s/30s period piece about the boxing game. Conway and Knotts are working as corner men when we first meet them and making a holy hash out of it. It was no better when Conway was the fighter and Knotts the manager. Conway had a perfect record as he points out. Zero wins, 20 loses and all 20 by knockout.

Conway is the funniest boxer since Lou Costello stepped in the squared circle in Abbott&Costello Meet The Invisible Man. Conway has one thing going for him if you believe, a right hand with the power of Jack Dempsey. He just never got a chance to throw it.

Anyway gangster Robin Clarke gets them involved in a scheme to take over David Wayne's gym by giving Conway the Primo Carnera buildup until he gets a crack at champ Michael LaGuardia's title. Wayne is really stealing points from what Burgess Meredith did in the Rocky series.

Conway and Knotts worked well together and as solo performers. As a team they were a lot like Laurel&Hardy with Conway the dumb one who knows it and Knotts the dumb one who thinks he's a genius. This film is a great example of their team dynamic.

I like them both separate and apart and fans of both will like The Prize Fighter.

Well, I don't know about other comments, but when I saw the movie in 1979 or 1980, I thought it was a very good little comedy with the shenanigans and slapstick of Knotts & Conway,

As far as "Boxing" movies or documentaries, it was no "Raging Bull" or "Golden Boy", and it didn't have the real life sadness but redemption of "Ring of Fire - The Emile Griffith Story" or the excellence of "Somebody Up There Likes Me", but it wasn't a drama or true story.

It was a comedy that was well acted and deserves a three star rating on the entertainment value. Thanks to Tim, Don and the cast & crew for a slice of movie magic.

The Prize Fighter was originally out by the time the film Rocky 2 was out. The first Rocky had been a hit a couple of years earlier. The Prize Fighter was an attempt at comedy of a serious script...Rocky. This film honors Rocky in the manner that Scary Movie does Scream. Great comedians have had to wait in order to have their analytical talent recognized because of the fact that their analysis was way ahead of their era. That was the case for these actors/writers. It's not the only time this has been done. Tom Hanks's and John Candy's The Volunteers did the same for other classic films such as Bridge on the River Kwai. The era in which The Prize Fighter was filmed does not affect the content or message of the film even after thirty years. I give it a seven on a scale of one to ten... It's not a bad film.