The Prize Fighter

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.

THE PRIZE FIGHTER hasn't garnered much attention since its initial release in 1979. Watching this film, one understands why. It's a drab mediocrity unworthy of the talents of Tim Conway and Don Knotts. It's more distressing to learn that Conway co-wrote the screenplay. He had a chance for creative control on this project but for whatever reason he couldn't take advantage of it.

In this Depression-era setting, Conway's a clumsy boxer called Bags and Knotts is his smart-alecky manager, Shake. They think they've struck gold when a powerful gangster named Mike (Robin Clarke) offers them a series of fights leading to a title bout. Unknown to them, Mike's using them as pawns in a scheme. He'll have Bags win some fixed fights and then get clobbered by the champion (Michael LaGuardia). Mike'll force Pop Morgan (David Wayne), an insolvent old man who befriends Bags and Shake, to bet his entire gym on the challenger.

The film's outcome is predictable but that wouldn't matter if THE PRIZE FIGHTER was entertaining. It isn't. As a comedy, it only gets by with scattered chuckles, due mostly to Conway and Knotts rather than the material. Stale gags like an auto encounter with a truck of chickens are trotted out. Worst of all, Conway's denied the opportunity to showcase his physical comedy gifts in the gym and ring; he's relegated to obvious stunts that any second-rate performer could do.

The film also fails in the area of sentimentality. Bags and Shake become surrogate fathers to an orphan boy, Timmy (George Nutting). The scenes with the child, however, are handled perfunctorily. Attempts at being heartwarming are further hampered by Nutting's wooden performance.

THE PRIZE FIGHTER cannot be considered the low point in Conway and Knotts's careers. They've done worse. But they've done much better and that realization makes the film so dismaying.

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 once again make a comfortable comedy team, playing a dumb boxer and his goofy manager in a tale set in the 1930s. The two of them are struggling and starving, but catch the attention of young mobster Mike (Robin Clarke, "The Formula"), who uses them as pawns in his scheme to acquire the gym of crusty old trainer Pop Morgan (David Wayne, "Adam's Rib"). Bags (the boxer) participates in a series of fights which he doesn't know are fixed, all on the way to confronting the reigning champion, "The Butcher" (Michael LaGuardia, "Total Recall").

Filmed on location in Atlanta, this film benefits from the local atmosphere. As far as the comedy content goes, this may not be a prime Conway & Knotts vehicle, but one can certainly do worse. There are enough laughs and good moments to qualify this as pleasant, if not uproarious, fare. There is some hilarity involving Mikes' dotty, senile mother (Mary Ellen O'Neill, "Galaxy of Terror"), but this material seems to exist in a different movie altogether. Conway also concocted the story and wrote the screenplay, with co-star John Myhers ("Willard"), and he and Knotts are in typically fine form. Wayne stands out among the supporting cast, which also consists of Cisse Cameron ("Space Mutiny") as Mikes' mistreated moll, child actor George Nutting (in one of only two movie roles for him) as orphaned kid Timmy, and Irwin Keyes ("House of 1000 Corpses") as Mikes' henchman.

The Bags method of fighting is certainly good for some laughs. He mostly just runs around trying to avoid the fists of his opponent, until connecting with a supposedly superior right hook which he doesn't know is NOT that effective.

All in all, a decent comedy, geared towards a family audience and mostly avoiding too much unpleasantness.

Seven out of 10.

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.