If you think Champion is a cold-eyed look at the fight game, check out Ring Lardner's original story. There Midge Kelly is from the beginning much more vicious than Kirk Douglas ever becomes, and without any unhappy-childhood alibi. In transforming the character from an evil bastard to a victim who overdoses on self-interest, the screenplay drafts in such sentimental nonsense as the artistic love interest from Body and Soul (there an artist, here a sculptor) and does not really make believable Midge's character transition. For instance, when he takes over the defeated champion's girlfriend (Marilyn Maxwell), who has heretofore despised him, it makes sense that he should have her, then contemptuously dismiss her, not that he should make her his steady girlfriend. The movie also suffers from the casting being not quite the best -- Paul Stewart instead of Jimmy Gleason, Ruth Roman (the poor man's Ida Lupino, but neither of them right for the part) instead of some sweet young thing, and Maxwell instead of the peerless blonde bitch, Jan Sterling. See her with Douglas in Ace in the Hole for a terrific pairing of acid and venom--one too strong, unfortunately, for the public to take.
