Coming from the wrong side of the tracks, hapless hobo Kirk Douglas leaps from train to trainer, via ravishing Ruth Roman in this above average boxing drama.
Duped out of co-ownership of the Step Inn cafe on the Californian coast, Douglas and disabled brother Arthur Kennedy discover to their dual dismay that they have each stepped into dead end careers as executive dishwashers. Finding himself railroaded into marrying the owner's daughter (Roman), Douglas decides to take the money (what little there is of it) and run. Passing up potentially glittering vocations as a soda jerk or ditch digger, a chance meeting with former acquaintance and trainer Paul Stewart, leads tough guy Douglas to embark upon a future in the ring.
With a pervading sense of pride coming before a fall, Douglas emerges through his increasingly successful career, to be the kind of character who is principled when it suits him and unscrupulous when it doesn't. He is at best ambivalent towards the women he encounters - expensive Marilyn Maxwell, who has a passion for 'pretty things' (possessions, not the band!) and cultured Lola Albright - whilst remaining largely secretive about his continuing dysfunctional marriage. In a sequence which alludes to the second temptation of Christ, he succumbs weakly to the lure of money, alienating both Kennedy and Stewart in the process.
Douglas proves adept at conveying two-faced insincerity in this abrasive saga, which ultimately plays out as an anti-boxing statement. Fights often degenerating into unchecked barbarism, with refs unwilling to intervene and call a halt. Medical attention for stricken contestants only available through a telephone call. In stark contrast, by calling the main protagonist 'Midge', you're unlikely to instill any quaking in the boots or trembling at the knees. It's hardly Bonecrusher territory.
A minor detail, perhaps, but a microcosm of a wider issue. For all its tough, brash, unashamedly gritty intentions, this rags to riches tale comes across as measured, choreographed and formulaic. Champion may have championed Douglas' escalation to stardom, but much of the rest of this production is in need of a lift.
Duped out of co-ownership of the Step Inn cafe on the Californian coast, Douglas and disabled brother Arthur Kennedy discover to their dual dismay that they have each stepped into dead end careers as executive dishwashers. Finding himself railroaded into marrying the owner's daughter (Roman), Douglas decides to take the money (what little there is of it) and run. Passing up potentially glittering vocations as a soda jerk or ditch digger, a chance meeting with former acquaintance and trainer Paul Stewart, leads tough guy Douglas to embark upon a future in the ring.
With a pervading sense of pride coming before a fall, Douglas emerges through his increasingly successful career, to be the kind of character who is principled when it suits him and unscrupulous when it doesn't. He is at best ambivalent towards the women he encounters - expensive Marilyn Maxwell, who has a passion for 'pretty things' (possessions, not the band!) and cultured Lola Albright - whilst remaining largely secretive about his continuing dysfunctional marriage. In a sequence which alludes to the second temptation of Christ, he succumbs weakly to the lure of money, alienating both Kennedy and Stewart in the process.
Douglas proves adept at conveying two-faced insincerity in this abrasive saga, which ultimately plays out as an anti-boxing statement. Fights often degenerating into unchecked barbarism, with refs unwilling to intervene and call a halt. Medical attention for stricken contestants only available through a telephone call. In stark contrast, by calling the main protagonist 'Midge', you're unlikely to instill any quaking in the boots or trembling at the knees. It's hardly Bonecrusher territory.
A minor detail, perhaps, but a microcosm of a wider issue. For all its tough, brash, unashamedly gritty intentions, this rags to riches tale comes across as measured, choreographed and formulaic. Champion may have championed Douglas' escalation to stardom, but much of the rest of this production is in need of a lift.