Le champion

THE CHAMP feels like a quintessential Depression movie: it captures the poverty, pessimism, and sense of desperation so many experienced during that period. Beery and Cooper's father-son relationship is highly touching, and the latter's performance is one for the ages. Cooper's character is a child forced into an adult role due to his father's alcoholism and the hardboiled, macho attitudes of the men around him, yet he still possesses the naivete and steadfast optimism only children possess. It's a complex role for a kid to nail down, but Cooper hits every note perfectly.

THE CHAMP could have easily been a soppy mess, but the gritty aesthetic and underplaying of the actors keep it from such melodramatic excess.

this is one touching,heartwarming movie.it's all about the love a father has for his son and vice versa.Wallace Beery is good as the dad,but it's Jackie Cooper(nine years old,at the time)who steals the show)as the son.as a nine year old child,Cooper showed acting ability and maturity way beyond his years.this film has little to do with boxing,and in fact,the one big boxing scene is quite comical,and not in a good way.thank goodness,it secondary,and doesn't lesson the overall impact of the movie.the ending is unexpected and hit me like a punch to the gut.it's a powerful moment,and deeply affecting.for me,The Champ(1931)is a 7/10

The central relationship of the adoring street-wise kid (Cooper) and his devoted, boozing, gambling ex-champ Dad (Beery) is astonishing. We are observing behavior here, not acting. Cooper gives the best child performance I've ever seen and Beery is utterly human, flawed and unforgettable.

This film is full of terrific moments - comedy and heartbreak. The friendship between Cooper and his black pal is beautifully color-blind. When Cooper states, "He's colored," it's with a child's open, untainted honesty. I find King Vidor's films to always resonate with humanity and compassion. He was one of our greatest filmmakers as Frances Marion was one of our greatest screenwriters.

Father/son movies were nothing new when November 1931's "The Champ" was released. But its ending is what struck movie audiences as unique, one of cinema's most potent tear jerkers ever projected on the screen. "The Champ is one of the greatest love stories ever put to film, the story of a man who wants to do right but fails and a son who never gives up on him," film reviewer Jerry Roberts writes. "(Wallace) Beery is what gives the film its foundation."

Beery performance was so powerful he won the 5th Academy Awards' Best Actor in a virtual tie with Frederic March for his role in 1931's "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." After receiving the statuette, Berry, in the middle of renegotiating his contract with MGM, demanded he be paid one dollar more than the studio's highest paid actor. The agreement made him the richest salaried Hollywood actor at that time. Francis Marion wrote "The Champ's" screenplay especially with Beery in mind. It proved to be a great inspiration since she won the Academy Award's Best Story for her work on bringing bucketful of tears to millions of viewers.

Her tale has Andy "Champ" Purcell (Beery), a former world heavyweight title holder, down on his luck and turns to drink and gambling. Through his divorce, Andy was able to keep his son, Dink (Jackie Cooper), until his mother Linda (Irene Rich), sees him at the racetrack with his father. Remarried into wealth, Linda gets the court to gain custody of Dink. In a classic highly emotional separation scene, Andy, in prison, says goodbye to his loyal son, only to have Dink jump off the train transporting him to his mother's home. He wants to see his father fight one more match facing off against the Mexican champion in what turns out to be a brutal match. A preview audience loved the movie, except for the ending. MGM's head of production, Irving Thalberg, had the match reshot, ending with one of the most emotional 18-handkerchief scenes in cinema.

Despite the warmth displayed on the screen between the two actors, Beery and Cooper did not get along. Beery hated childhood actors, and it was evident he didn't enjoy his time with the nine-year-old Jackie. Publicly, he diplomatically described Cooper as "a great kid," but the boy claimed the actor treated him like "an unkempt dog." In retrospect, Cooper said it was pure jealousy that made Beery, in scene after scene, try to upstage him. Beery was so fed up with the director calling for tight shots of Cooper's teary face, he demanded in his new MGM contract that no juvenile actor could ever have a close-up in any picture with him. Beery vowed he would never appear in another movie with Cooper again after "The Champ" wrapped. But so popular was the acting duo that he took back his promise in the mid-1930s, sharing screen time again with Cooper in three more films.

Besides Beery's tied win, the Academy nominated "The Champ" for Best Picture as well as its director, King Vidor for Best Director. Francis Marion's award-winning script was so brilliant Red Skelton adapted it into his 1952 film, "The Clown," where he plays the Andy character as a has-been clown rather than a boxer. Later generations are more familiar with director Franco Zeffirelli's 1979 version of "The Champ" with Jon Voight, Faye Dunaway and Ricky Schroder as the son. This film was actress Joan Blondell's last movie.

I had seen the 1979 remake starring Jon Voigt and Faye Dunaway (the female part was much more important ) and I was not that impressed.Jon Voigt was too good-looking and too handsome to portray the champ successfully.The original really blew my mind:the Wallace Beery /Jackie Cooper team was a winning one and it's one of the best pairings man/boy in the history of cinema ,with echoes of Charlie Chaplin's "the kid" .Although the movie takes place in the prizefighters milieu,the plot is pure melodrama ,mainly aimed at the female audience .The reactionary side of the melodrama -the posh lady horrified at the people around her boy, a "normal" wealthy family is the safe way to happiness,etc- is present but emotion survives the tear-jerker side .And I dare you not to shed a tear when the boy screams "I want the champ!".