Dull boxing film featuring a collection of talent who were all about to or had just made classic films: Carl Laemmle Jnr (the Universal horrors), Tod Browning (in between Dracula and Freaks), Robert Armstrong (just prior to King Kong), Lew Ayres (just after All Quiet on the Western Front), Jean Harlow (in between Public Enemy and Red Headed Woman). This isn’t a classic. In fact, it's pretty bad.
Jean Harlow wasn’t great in her first few films but there was usually someone even worse in the cast, and here it’s Lew Ayres. It’s not so much he gives a bad performance, it’s just he always seemed to be a nice boy next door type, whose great quality was earnest sincerity - and he is incredibly unconvincing as a boxer, except when he’s getting thumped. That’s what happens at the beginning, prompting wife Harlow to leave. He starts winning again so she comes back and wrecks his life by cheating on him, spending his money, and firing loyal manager Armstrong (in a lethargic performance).
Misogynist, dull script, and Browning’s direction is flat and uninspired. It lacks the pace, realism and slangy dialogue of the best boxing films. Harlow keeps her boobs front and centre in a series of low cut and/or bra-less outfits, as if distracting the audience until she learned how to act.
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