The Life of Jimmy Dolan

THE LIFE OF JIMMY DOLAN is a thoroughly entertaining and absorbing little film about a fighter who accidentally kills a man and is advised to go on the run to avoid prison.

It features DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, JR. in what is possibly one of his best early roles as the fighter who finds refuge in a country home for crippled children. He also finds romance in the form of LORETTA YOUNG, then in her early 20s and very lovely. The romantic moments between Fairbanks and Young are tender and charming, well-played by both who have good chemistry with each other.

In bit roles are MICKEY ROONEY (as one of the kids who worships the fighter), and JOHN WAYNE as an amateur boxer who needs the fight money for his wife. But the best support comes from ALINE MacMAHON as the feisty Scottish woman who bosses Fairbanks around while appreciating his manly charm as much as Loretta.

An interesting tale later remade in the '40s with John Garfield as THEY MADE ME A CRIMINAL, told here with warmth and humor. If you're a fan of Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. or Loretta Young, you can't afford to miss this little gem.

"The Life of Jimmy Dolan," made in 1933, was remade later as "They Made Me a Criminal." This precode version is a good film starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Loretta Young, Guy Kibbee, Lyle Talbot, and Aline McMahon, and is notable for its early appearances by John Wayne and Mickey Rooney (who already had seven years as an actor under his belt). The underrated Fairbanks, who doesn't look like a boxer, is the champ Jimmy Dolan, who gets drunk, accidentally kills a reporter, and takes off when his manager is mistaken for him in a burning car. He ends up on a farm for sick children run by the beautiful Young, who was about 20 when this was made, and Aline MacMahon. He becomes accustomed to the life there, falls for the Young character, and when the farm needs $2,000, he considers going back into the ring.

The nice thing about precode is you're never sure how a film will end. This movie has a toughness about it but also a poignancy.

"The Life of Jimmy Dolan" joins "The Emperor's Candlesticks" and "Remember Last Night" as having longevity water somewhere on the set. Fairbanks, Jr. lived to the age of 90; Loretta Young to 87; Aline MacMahon to 92; Lyle Talbot to 94, and Mickey Rooney, approaching 90, is still with us as of this writing. So you have your "Rebel Without a Cause" and "Blood & Sand," where everyone died young, and films like this. Go figure.

Compulsively entertaining spiritual regeneration yarn with a surprising layer of sensitivity and depth to offset the mawkishness. The dapper Douglas Fairbanks Jr. is more than a mite improbable as the title character, a middleweight boxing champ, but delivers a charming and sympathetic portrait of a hard-luck cynic.

Framed for a murder and thought to be dead, an embittered Jimmy D. takes to the lonely road and winds up on a health ranch for invalid children. Run by sad-eyed earth mother Aline MacMahon and the winsome Loretta Young, and populated with the likes of such professional heart-tuggers as Mickey Rooney and Allen "Farina" Hoskins, you can bet that Jimmy's redemption is waiting around the bend. But the film is so sharply written and cunningly played that the shamelessly convenient finale still packs an emotional punch.

With Guy Kibbee as the myopic ex-detective, Lyle Talbot as the crooked manager, and a youthful John Wayne in the antithesis of his macho image as a diffident amateur boxer.

This was an entertaining film, right from the get-go, and it seemed to be divided into three segments.

Segment One was a crime story in which the leading character, "Jimmy Dolan" (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) is shown as a heavyweight champion (at 170 pounds? Well, boxing stories weren't all that realistic on film for many years) who is nothing like his public image. (Hmm...sounds like something familiar, even today). Anyway, a reporter finds out Dolan is not as wholesome as he portrays himself, states he's going to blow the whistle on him and Dolan socks him in the face before he can divulge his "scoop." Unfortunately, the blow kills the man. Without going into other details to ruin it anyone who has not seen this, Dolan winds up on the lam out west in Salt Lake City.

Segment Two is a romance, human--interest story. Loretta Young and Ailine MacMahon are introduced into the film as a young woman-and-aunt who run a ranch for several disable kids who were rescued out of an institution. As things progress, Young falls for Fairbanks, and slowly takes the cynicism out of him. The kids are all pretty entertaining and among them is a very young Mickey Rooney who delivers his lines so naturally you can see why he became a big star at a young age. Anne Shirley is also among the kids.

Segment Three involves a boxing match in which Fairbanks is trying to earn money to help save the ranch for the women and kids. In that segment is a young John Wayne, with a greasy 1950s hairdo! The boxing scenes are almost laughable, but that's okay. We are more interested in what happens than how real it looks. This segment also involves Guy Kibbe, a detective who has been tracking down Fairbanks. I can't say more about him without risking spoiling the ending.

That mixture of crime, suspense, action, romance, drama, family and kids sentiment all make this 87-minute film worth your time.

1933's The Life of Jimmy Dolan, a fine movie, is a good example of how the Motion Picture Production code of July 1934 changed movies, since, for comparison, you have the 1939 remake, They Made Me a Criminal. The big difference is that the remake turns a tough story into sentimental claptrap, making sure that crime does not pay. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. doesn't get the credit he deserves as a star in the Warner Bros. repertory company, but he looks too skinny and upper class for a champion boxer. John Garfield is better cast for the part, especially with his nervous energy. But the 1933 picture is way more realistic and cynical. In the 1933 version of a boxer's life, everyone has hard times, including John Wayne, who gets carried out after trying to go the distance in a boxing contest between amateurs and a pro fighter. Production Code Administrator Breen wouldn't allow crime to pay at all, liked a white bread world and would have stopped Warner Bros. from re-releasing The Life of Jimmy Dolan. That was not a problem, because of the remake. The better movie about the boxer on the lam is the one made in 1933. Gritty movies like The Life of Jimmy Dolan vanished until after the demise of the Production Code in the early 1960s. What movies Hollywood would have made if not for rigid censorship for over 25 years is an unanswerable question. Warner Bros. pre-code sound movies indicate that older movies made before censorship have dated a lot better than much of the drivel released during the Breen censorship period.