Palooka

I got a kick out of this film for the first half of it, but it got so stupid with the main characters that I had a hard time finishing it. However, it was still worth a look to see Lupe Valez. I had read what a strange character she was in real life, and that she was sexy woman, so at least I have now seen her. She was a very pretty lady and not shy, either. This film just made it under the wire before the Hays Code came along, so Lupe showed us about all of her breasts. They weren't anything noteworthy, but she certainly showed what she had and a year later, she would have been forced to cover up.

Stu Erwin plays the boxer "Joe Palooka." He plays a really inept fighter and stupid guy in general who is endearing for awhile but wears thin. The same goes for Jimmy Durante's role of fight manager "Knobby Walsh." He really wears thin.

Anyway, this is typical early '30s material which means very corny and dated in the humor and romance department, sometimes hilarious and a bit racy and edgy but one that bogs down midway through.

If they're not going to refer to the source in any conceivable way, they should use a different name. Doughy milk toast Stu Erwin can be quite good in the right roles but not as Joe Palooka or any fighter. Yeesh. However it is a real treat to see a completely out of control Jimmy Durante and a completely out of control Lupe Velez. The rest of the cast is interesting enough, I always like Robert Armstrong and it's fun to see Cagney's brother, Billy though he doesn't have nearly the character or screen presence of Jimmy. The whole story is just plain dumb but it gets a rave for that little gem, Lupe Velez and that master of farce, Jimmy Durante.

"Palooka" (1934) has wonderful actor work by Jimmy Durante, Lupe Velez, and Robert Armstrong

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This movie is an example of extremely good acting worth seeing, but brought down by not-so-good directing, script writing, and dull casting choices (esp. Stuart Erwin, the lead "Joe Palooka" protagonist character).

The movie was made in 1933, though 1934 is given as its release date of record.

Robert Armstrong starred in King Kong (1933), made in 1932, but not released until 1933, possibly not until after the much less famous "Palooka" (1934) movie was made and/or released.

His role as Joe Palooka's father is minor, but very well acted.

For me, the most spectacular part of this movie, and the reason I gave it a highest possible rating, is the unexpected and serious actor work of Jimmy Durante.

In several scenes in this movie, Jimmy Durante breaks character away from his usual and familiar comic exasperated buffoon character, and becomes a serious actor portraying scenes of riveting, serious intensity.

He gets angry and threatens people and isn't nice about it....intends to scare them, and obviously succeeds.

He becomes scary and does a very good job at portraying that.

Jimmy Durante could obviously have been a serious actor in gangster pictures of the Edward G. Robinson type, or unique movies which might have been labeled "the Jimmy Durante type."

Who can say?

I've watched his comic and musical performances my whole life starting in the early 1950's when I was 9 years old and he appeared and starred in TV's "The Colgate Comedy Hour."

I've seen him in MGM musicals co-starring with Frank Sinatra and Esther Williams and others, always as a comic "second banana."

But his performance in "Palooka" (1934) in perhaps 30 seconds total of serious scenes is very new for me, and quite wonderful (I am a retired SAG-AFTRA movie actor....worked 55 years as an actor before retiring, also taught college level movie history for 5 years, and I appreciate excellent actor work, which Durante displayed in "Palooka.")

Lupe Velez is yet another good actor (actress) in this movie.

Her career and life was brief, and she died young (in the 1940's in her 30's).

But she is electric in every movie I've seen her in from "The Gaucho" (1928 MGM - Silent) starring Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. to this movie, and others.

She was an actress with true "star quality," an electric magnetism which seems to "jump off the screen" into the audience and is always sure to delight them.

Few ever had it or have it now, but Lupe Valez, Jimmy Durante, and Robert Armstrong all had it, and are all in this movie.

Any movie buff or scholar who desires to study and experience high quality, charismatic actor work....top of the "food chain" acting.... should see this movie, and be patient with it's flaws and shortcomings.

Acting teachers should use this movie to show acting students what good acting is, and what can and has happened to good actors in otherwise flawed movies.

Surprisingly spry given that this film is a premise to film antiquity. I always knew who Jimmy Durante was as a late boomer, but I had never seen him in his prime until this movie. I'm glad I did. He doesn't pretend to be an actor and delivers his lines with a uniform delivery. He's not a very funny man, but a weird oddity as an entertainer, the likes of whom would never ever be taken seriously in today's world of commodified entertainers. What's another point of interest in this film is the appearance of a William Cagney,brother of James....I assume the older of the two. Cagney's first scene when he shows up to his fight pie-eyed is a rather realistic and understated portrayal of drunkenness. There is plenty of drinking in this movie and many people get drunk. What's also an unexpectedly nice touch to this film is that the RELATIONSHIPS ARE BELIEVABLE. Filial conflict peppers this film in that the protagonist has to wrestle with his divided loyalty as cornered by his mother and father. Sometimes the film veers off into unbelievable ridicularity that could never respect the viewer; like when Durante wobbles drunkenly down the street, smashes a showcase window, then enters the display and starts his riinka-dinnk routine on the display's piano The least acquired appreciation for the film is its presence of Runyan-esquire toughs. These actors are CHARACTERS, not celebrities acting in obvious vehicles. Worth a look.

This feature length film based on Ham Fisher's comic strip Joe Palooka has Stu Erwin cast as quite a different Palooka than Fisher created. In the strip Joe Palooka is a clean living Jack Armstrong/Frank Merriwell type, defender of the weak and downtrodden when he's not in the ring. Erwin is clean living all right but no one would ever cast him as a Jack Armstrong.

Stu is the son of an Armstrong though, Robert Armstrong plays Pete Palooka his dad, former champion who could not lay off the booze and the women. That caused a split with his wife show girl Marjorie Rambeau and she quit the stage and raised Erwin out in the country on a farm with lots of clean living and a wholesome girl played by Mary Carlisle wants to marry him.

But a chance encounter with fight manager Knobby Walsh played by the one and only Jimmy Durante has Erwin convinced to follow his dad into the boxing game. And another fluke has him beating champion William Cagney and not only inheriting his title but also his girlfriend Lupe Velez.

Now that's one cast of colorful players that should alone make you want to see this film. Even if it's not what creator Ham Fisher had in mind Palooka is still a nice film with a few sly innuendos that those who love those before the Code films will appreciate.

Written into the film is Jimmy Durante in a drunken stupor singing one of his famous songs Inka-Dinka-Doo. And there's nothing like the come hither glance that only Lupe Velez can give to any man. That woman could seduce Truman Capote.

Not a great one as far as boxing films are concerned but still some fine entertainment.