Iron Man

After the success of All Quiet On The Western Front Lew Ayres was suddenly quite the hot property for Universal Studios. Following up on that film Ayres was cast in this boxing saga about a fighter, his wife, and his manager. The roles are played by Ayres, Jean Harlow, and Robert Armstrong.

As long as Ayres follows Armstrong's instructions he's a success. And one of those instructions is to get rid of his gold digging wife Harlow. It's not jealousy working here, Armstrong can plainly see the adverse affect Harlow has on Ayres and that he's not got his head in the ring when she's around.

When she's not around Armstrong guides Ayres to the heavyweight championship. But when he does become champ, Harlow comes back to bask in his glory and also to party with Ayres and her new boy friend on the side John Miljan.

Let's just say that Ayres finds out just how badly he needs Armstrong before the film is over.

Iron Man seems to be borrowing quite liberally from the relationship that Jack Dempsey had with his then wife Estelle Taylor and his manager Doc Kearns. Kearns let it be known to all who would hear that Dempsey was a bum without him when they did part. However Armstrong truly is the brains in this duo. I'm surprised that none of the real life trio sued Universal Pictures and Carl Laemmle.

The title was used in another boxing picture that starred Jeff Chandler and Rock Hudson that Universal did 20 years later. But that film has absolutely nothing to do with this picture. Nor of course has it anything to do with the superhero Robert Downey, Jr. brought to the screen in the past few years.

Tod Browning got some really nice performances out of his star trio and the rest of the cast. Iron Man ranks right up there with a lot of other classic films on pugilism.

Lightweight boxer Lew Ayres (as "Kid" Mason) loses an important fight by not pacing himself, which irks childhood friend and manager Robert Armstrong (as George Regan). To make matters worse, the young fighter's sexy show-girl wife Jean Harlow (as Rose) leaves New York for Hollywood. Then, Ayres begins following Mr. Armstrong's directions, and wins the championship title. Unsuccessful at movie stardom, Ms. Harlow returns to enjoy "Iron Man" Ayres' newfound wealth and fame.

But, Harlow has a secret lover, John Miljan (as Paul Lewis) helping her gain control over Ayres' bank account. They plot to get rid of Armstrong, who has a weakness for alcohol to match his fondness for Ayres. Armstrong had Harlow figured as a tramp from the very beginning, but hadn't the heart to tell his young friend. This is telegraphed to you, "radio drama"-style, with Armstrong's line, "It's about time that you knew that she…" Other lines are less obvious.

Director Tod Browning shows little of his flair, but gives old "extra" friend Eddie Dillon (as Jeff) a good amount of screen time.

"Iron Man" is a classic, often re-told, boxing story, with the subtleties of later revisions less buried; for example, the contention that sexual relations drain a boxer's strength. Also interesting is the age difference between Armstrong and his beer-sharing boyhood "pal"; the casting, while perhaps unintentional, suggests the older man had an unrequited love for his handsome young charge. When he says his final, "Put on that robe, you wanna get pneumonia," perhaps Armstrong has won Ayres' love at last.

****** Iron Man (4/30/31) Tod Browning ~ Lew Ayres, Robert Armstrong, Jean Harlow, John Miljan

I know that this Tod Browning's picture will be remade twenty years later starring Jeff Chandler, but this movie is not the best about prize fighting, it's not THE SET UP or THE CHAMPION, or REQUIEM FOR A HEAVY WEIGHT or RAGING BULL.... It must be seen as a sport drama, a character study in the sport domain. Lew Ayres was here at his peak, just one year after ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. So, yes, from Tod Browning in a no Lon Chaney Sr like film, without any monster or twisted, weird plot, it is a worth watching item. It belongs to the best sports dramas, at least for the pre code era, I have ever seen, better than some Warner movies, which were too fast paced for my taste and above all for this kind of story.

IRON MAN originally ran 73 minutes but most prints today are in the 66 minute range but even at that abbreviated length, it's a chore to sit through. One of the worst examples of a stiff early talkie, it's films like this that unjustly give that era a bad reputation when there were actually many fine films from the period that were done with finesse and hold up superbly today. IRON MAN, alas, is an awkward, boring mess.

Lew Ayres stars as a lightweight boxer whose marriage to money-loving blonde Jean Harlow may be the root of his less than spectacular career. When Jean leaves him, manager Robert Armstrong molds him into the champ he always had the potential to be. When his career is on the upswing, a seemingly changed Harlow returns much to Armstrong's displeasure and their mutual hostility ultimately leads to a threat in the Armstrong/Ayres friendship and professional ties and Ayres' status as champ, with Armstrong mentoring a rival boxer.

IRON MAN is easily the worst film of Jean Harlow's career. She is wasted in a cardboard role that only gives her a few scenes and she is handled most unsympathetically by director Tod Browning, who apparently was scarcely less hostile to her than Armstrong's character. Browning may have been a master of horror, but he's a disaster here in the world of boxing and metropolitan life. Lew Ayres is badly miscast as the fighter and walks through the film with a sullen pout to perhaps suggest toughness although for the most part he's a milquetoast, passive both to wife Harlow and manager Armstrong.

Armstrong's manager is more control freak than the devoted pal he is supposed to be and there is a undercurrent of homosexuality in his possessiveness of Ayres which may have escaped the actor but certainly not director Browning (Armstrong and Ayres private talks frequently take place in bedrooms!) Ayres is (naturally) frequently shirtless but while handsome he is pretty dull here. Fans of the cast or director might want to check IRON MAN out just to see another one of their films but will most likely rank it at the bottom of their works.

When you enter into a film, you are accepting a world. You are accepting whatever God and physics and mythology that the filmmaker has created. Within that world, wheels turn and things happen.

All too often we think the movie is about those happenings. We focus on characters and the emotions they convey. But the deeper influence of a film is in how the world works.

Over time, movie watchers develop a sensitivity to this and make choices about which worlds resonate or not.

I have decided to boycott Glazier/Howard films because they are convinced that we like a world where some bad things happen as if they were rainstorms, but the entire cosmos is infused with a happy sweetness.

If you watch film deeply, this can ruin your whole day, with great expenditures of psychic energy in buying back your individuality. So instead of seeing "Cinderella Man" which is in the theaters now, I sought another boxing movie instead.

Sure, we have "Raging Bull" which is an exercise in visualizing a brutal personality. And we have "Rocky" which is sort of cold war ode to nationalism. But I chose this because it is by a director whose world I respect.

Tod Browning's world is a complex one, not catagorizable in terms of a single type of God or fate, depending on how you think. He himself comes from a circus world with some elements of risk, some of heavy fate, and others of practiced comedy tied to honor.

I credit Browning with laying the groundwork that allowed noir to take hold in the 30s, probably the strongest influence in film. So this film is about a contender, several actually. And it IS a contender, but unlike Howard's cardboard guy, this fellow has a wife that destroys the first layer of his world in order to expose and reinforce the larger world.

In the story, that's the world of honor and striving and self assurance. In the world of film, it is the world of self awareness and the link of fate to the game.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.