The Champ (1931)
One of the challenges with enjoying older films is that there are barriers between the story and its audience. Sometimes the films are in black and white and are presented with mono sound, which instantly give them a dated feel. Sometimes there’s overacting, often a result of vaudeville and silent actors adapting to the “talkies” of the 1930s. The films are typically heavily dialog driven, with special effects in their infancy. All of these things can combine to create distance.
About halfway through [i]The Champ[/i], eight-year-old “Dink” (Jackie Cooper) comes home to discover a horse trailer hauling away his horse, “Little Champ.” Moments later, Dink’s dad — a washed-up, former heavyweight boxing champion referred to only as “The Champ” (Wallace Beery) by his son — is forced to tell Dink that he lost the horse in a game of cards. “I’ll win him back, just as soon as I can get some dough,” offers the hungover Champ, but a despondent Dink retreats to a stump and is about to cry when the Champ grabs his face. “Get that lip up before you lose it,” he says, closing the boys mouth with his oversized boxing hands. He then forces the boy to smile, something we can imagine has happened a thousand times before in this complicated relationship.
The Champ, you see, is down on his luck. No longer boxing, The Champ now lives in Tijuana and passes his time drinking, gambling, and raising his son Dink, in that order. Through a chance encounter at a horse race, The Champ’s ex-wife Linda spots The Champ and Dink, whom she has not seen since he was an infant. Linda and new rich husband want to take the Dink and give him a better life, but having lost his title, his money, his home, and his honor, Dink is all The Champ has left.
[i]The Champ[/i] overcomes all those barriers I mentioned by presenting a small number of characters, all of whom viewers become emotionally invested in. Motivation and emotion are front and center here; we know why Dink wants to remain with The Champ, we know why Linda wants to rescue Dink from the squalor he lives in, and can feel the struggle The Champ is going through as he weighs what’s best for himself against what’s best for Dink. When The Champ finally reenters the ring against his doctor’s orders as Dink cheers him on, we can feel it. [i]The Champ[/i] is a film about losing, and winning, and sometimes, losing by winning.
Throughout the film, Jackie Cooper shows amazing range for a kid and demonstrates why he went on to become one of the biggest child stars of the 1930s. The role of The Champ revitalized the career of Wallace Berry, who signed a contract with MGM guaranteeing he would be paid $1 more than any other studio actor, making him the highest paid actor of his time. Director King Vidor went on to direct the black and white scenes in The Wizard of Oz and is best known for directing 1956’s War and Peace. Berry won the best actor Oscar for this role (in a controversial “tie”) and both he and Cooper badmouthed one another, swearing to never work together again, which they never did, until co-starring in Treasure Island which was released the following year. The champs were back.