Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

While traveling to California in a cargo wagon, the clandestine Michael "Midge" Kelly (Kirk Douglas) and his crippled brother Connie Kelly (Arthur Kennedy) are robbed and thrown off the train. They hitchhike and get a lift from the famous boxer Johnny Dunne (John Daheim), who is traveling with his mistress Grace Diamond (Marilyn Maxwell) to Kansas City for a fight. They explain that they have bought a share in a restaurant. In Kansas City, Midge gets in trouble while seeking a job and is invited to fight box for 35 dollars. He takes a beat and the promoter pays only 10 dollars to him, but the trainer Tommy Haley (Paul Stewart) invites Midge to go to his gym in Los Angeles to be trained in box. When the brothers arrive at the restaurant, they learn that they have been cheated in the business and the owner Lew Bryce (Harry Shannon) hires them to work in the restaurant waiting table and washing dishes. Soon Midge seduces Lew's daughter Emma Bryce (Ruth Roman) and when her father finds their affair, Emma with Midge are forced to get married to each other. However Midge decides to flee to seek out Tommy and leaves Emma alone after the wedding. He learns how to fight with Tommy and defeats several fighters. When he is scheduled to fight Johnny Dunne, the organized crime orders him to lose the fight. However Midge defeats Dunne and is black-listed and can not fight any more. But Grace convinces him to leave Tommy and be managed by Jerome Harris (Luis Van Rooten), who is connected to the crime world. Now Midge begins a successful career betraying his friends and stepping on women, including Harris' wife Palmer Harris (Lola Albright). How far will he go to make money and be champion? "Champion" is an awarded film-noir based on the story of an ambitious boxer that is capable to betray friend to climb in his career reaching fame and money. The direction and performances are excellent with good choreography in the fights, and the film was awarded in Film Editing category (Oscar) and Best Cinematography (Golden Globe). In addition, it achieved several nominations. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "O Invencível" ("The Invincible")

"Champion" is a very good movie that is sustained by an amazing performance by Kirk Douglas in the title role. The tale of a determined individual rising from poverty to riches through sheer will is not a new story. Douglas' Midge Kelly is determined to become someone no matter what he has to do and he succeeds; trampling everyone in his path. He alienates those who love him as his lust for personal glory consumes him fully. Anyone seeking for an example of what a charismatic movie star looks like need go no further than Kirk Douglas in this film. He is an absolute powerhouse of physical energy and blows everyone else off the screen. Whether stalking his prey in the ring, hitting the speed bag, effortlessly skipping rope, or launching himself to his feet by pushing his hands off the floor Kirk is just phenomenal. Probably one of the greatest physical performances of all time; echoed many times in the future by action stars like Stallone and Johnson. Supporting performances are excellent as well. The three leading ladies (Maxwell, Albright, and Ruth Roman) are all beautiful and have their chances to shine. Marilyn Maxwell is particularly shallow and her come-uppance at the hands of the even more shallow Douglas is a great scene. Paul Stewart is terrific as the weary manager who protects his fighter's image as a great champion despite knowing what he really is. And Arthur Kennedy turns in a pretty subdued performance that deserves commendation. Although the theme of corruption in boxing is pretty standard stuff in films the character study of Midge Kelly elevates the movie to great heights. And the performance of Kirk Douglas stamps this movie as a classic.

Due to current technology, last night I was able to watch "Champion" (1949) for the first time, at home, on my schedule, without having to wait for a commercial TV showing. This powerful, independent, black and white film is a credit to the motion picture industry demonstrating how a good story, expert direction, and a riveting lead performance may successfully substitute standard movie making with higher budgets, special effects, and outdoor locations. The world of boxing is painfully presented, and despite the ambiance, and rawness of it all, one cannot stop watching scene by scene, until the powerful, no nonsense end. Special mention goes to Kirk Douglas' outstanding performance as the strong, unlikeable, and cynic box champion. He pours realism and passion. One of his very best. Arthur Kennedy and Paul Stewart add excellent support. This gem is a must film for movie lovers as myself privileged to watch it 62 years after its original release.

He's 92 this week. And at 32 CHAMPION made Kirk a superstar. After playing weaklings, smooth gangsters and suburban husbands the part of Midge Kelly released the dynamic that characterised so much of his future work. The Kirk we came to know was born here. It's probably the role he most identified with at the time. His own experience of a father who never praised him and his consequent desire to prove himself - though not exactly paralleled here - can be echoed in the moonlit scene on the beach when he tells his girl of his ambition. And we know he's going to win.Stanley Kramer and Carl Foreman thought smaller - and usually better - in those days, causing a stir on behalf of independent production with a series of modest-budget but striking films on social issues e.g. HOME OF THE BRAVE, about racism in the armed forces and THE MEN, about the problems of disabled war vets (which unleashed another giant, Marlon Brando, onto the screen). CHAMPION, though sprung on more generic elements, adds a dark post-war abrasiveness to a familiar milieu and an uncompromising protagonist who takes no prisoners on his rise to the top. Midge becomes a monster and those closest to him get the worst of it before he finally expires, you could say, of an exploded ego. "He was a credit to the fight game" his brother drily observes, reflecting the film's ambivalence towards the sport, condemning what it exploits and vice versa. Midge's manager (Paul Stewart) wants to walk away but can't resist "watching a couple of good boys work out". We still love to 'cheer the champ' today but the physical and mental risks involved are sobering thoughts.Arthur Kennedy makes a solid presence of the rather thankless part of the kid brother/best friend/voice of conscience who's crippled to boot. The kid brother was usually disabled or a musical prodigy in these ringside sagas and eight years earlier Kennedy himself had gone the musical route in the more sentimental CITY FOR CONQUEST with James Cagney, no less, as his self-sacrificing sibling. The three babes who attend on Midge's life - the good, the bad and the one caught in the middle - are well contrasted with Ruth Roman outstanding as the little shotgun-wife he promptly deserts but returns to for an unforgivable piece of one-upmanship. And yet, despite it all, we retain a sneaking regard for this compelling unstoppable dreadnought. Earlier in the film Midge is ordered to throw a fight, instead he goes on defiantly to win the bout. In the empty stadium he's cornered by the promoter's goon-squad, it's payback-time. But unlike most people in that situation he's got an edge, he knows how to mix it. Before the numbers wear him down he gives them a pasting for their trouble. It's exhilarating to watch. Go get 'em Kirk..... And Many Happy Returns.