The White Hope

Joe Cook's gym is bankrupt, an income tax man wants to see him, he's training George Givot as a boxer, so what else can go wrong? Well, a lot of corny jokes, for one thing.

Cook seems more interested in enunciating clearly than in the quality of his gags, or perhaps his director is. After an appearance or two in the late 1920s, he went back to the stage, worked on his radio appearances, and then returned the the movie theater in a few comedy shorts for Educational Pictures, which was fading fast; they probably expected they would make a few bucks on it being Cook regardless of the quality of the movie.

"The White Hope"* is a Joe Cook film...and after seeing it, I can see why Cook only made a few films....it just isn't very funny. Cook himself isn't bad...but the script has very few laughs and a dopey 'punching machine'.

Throughout the film, Joe is running from a man. After all, bill collectors and the IRS are after him. But it's hard to keep running from these folks when he's supposed to be training a boxer for the big fight. But he finds time to also make a bet on a horse race...in the hopes that it will pay him enough to get the collectors off his back.

There just aren't many laughs....and for a comedy short, that's a problem. As I mentioned above, the worst is the punching machine. Who would build a machine to punch people?! And, if they did, would they keep accidentally using it on themselves?! Who wrote this and thought it was funny??

By the way, at one point, the opposing boxer threatens to 'break his beezer'. A beezer's an old slang term meaning 'nose'.

*The term 'white hope' or 'great white hope' is a pretty offensive one if you think about it. It refers to a white boxer who can possibly take the title away from a black champion, such as Jack Johnson or Joe Lewis.