W.S. Van Dyke - The Prizefighter and the Lady (1933)

http://h.imagehost.org/0028/GaticaElMono.jpg

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/5333/imdbimage.jpg

spoilers!
Max Baer plays a fat-headed boxer who falls in love and marries sweet Myrna Loy. However, soon after the wedding, Baer begins drinking and womanizing and seemed to be a major jerk--and a very talented boxer. Unfortunately, he promised again and again he'd change, but he didn't. By the end of the film, he'd lost his wife and manager and didn't seem to care. However, the usual cliché of "turnaround scene" when the boxer hit bottom never really occurred with Baer's character! By the big fight at the end of the film, he STILL was a jerk--yet despite this, the wife and manager came running back to him!! This made very little sense and seems to have set back women's rights several decades.

While the plot of this film and production values are at best average, this film has a lot of historical value and so it shouldn't be written off completely. That's because this boxing film is unique in that it stars several real boxers--including several champions. Max Baer and Primo Carnera were, at the time, the most famous active boxers--both having been champions. Max Baer is the star of the film and does a pretty good job of acting considering he is NOT an actor. Plus, it's interesting to see Max Baer, Jr.'s ("Jethro" from THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES) father act. In addition, Jack Dempsey (perhaps the most famous boxer of the 20th Century) makes a significant appearance as well and there are some small cameos by famous boxers and wrestlers of the age. So, as a result, this movie is a MUST for boxing fans or lovers of pop culture and American history. All I suggest, though, is that you realize this is NOT a great film--just interesting for reasons other than artistic merit.

Primo Carnera was the world's heavyweight boxing champion when this film was made and released. He refused to make the movie using the first script, which had him knocked out in the end, but agreed to a revised script with an additional $10,000 salary.

Max Baer was the leading heavyweight contender for the title. Both he and Carnera made their motion picture debuts in this film.

In an interview, Myrna Loy stated that Max Baer carefully watched Primo Carnera's boxing style during the filming and used this information to beat him in their real-life match for the title in March, 1934.

Fred 'Snowflake' Toones is in studio records/casting call lists for the role of "Trainer," but he did not appear or was not identifiable in the movie. A Contemporary Motion Picture Herald article stated that Lionel Barrymore, Jean Hersholt, Lupe Velez and Johnny Weissmuller were to appear as fight fans in the audience of the championship fight, but they were not seen.

"Originally, screenwriter Frances Marion, who had just won an Oscar® for another boxing themed movie The Champ (1931), was given the assignment at MGM to write a new story for Myrna Loy and Clark Gable to fit the title The Sailor and the Lady. Howard Hawks was slated to direct and the story department was instructed to deliver a typical Gable scenario: gruff but lovable sailor falls for an upper class girl. Marion dismissed the story idea as warmed-over pudding, but was ordered to proceed by studio head Louis B. Mayer. After working on the script for weeks, Marion turned it in only to find out that Clark Gable was no longer available to do the film. Instead, the studio had signed the real-life boxer Max Baer to star, with the story's focus shifted to the world of the boxing ring. Major re-writes were needed to accommodate this significant premise change in the newly re-titled The Prizefighter and the Lady, and Marion wanted nothing to do with it. "Gene Tunney (Heavyweight Boxing Champion 1926-28) is my friend. He married a beautiful society girl - and they might think that I have exploited their love affair," she pleaded with a studio supervisor as remembered in her 1973 autobiography Off With Their Heads. "Just tear up that manuscript and find another story - dozens of that genre have been published."¿ The studio supervisor reminded her not-so-nicely that she was contractually obligated to do as the studio said, so she re-wrote the script to accommodate the new boxing angle.

"Since Gable was no longer available to star in The Prizefighter and the Lady, director Howard Hawks begged off the project as well. Woody Van Dyke, who was known for his speedy shooting style, was re-assigned to direct. MGM asked Hawks to stay on board for a few weeks, however, in order to help Max Baer, who had never been in a film before, with his acting. The results were excellent, as Baer proved to be a natural in front of the camera. He shines in his winning debut performance, and holds his own next to seasoned performers like Myrna Loy and Walter Huston, who plays Baer's manager in the film.

"The Prizefighter and the Lady climaxes with a heavily hyped fight scene between Baer's character and reigning real-life World Heavyweight Champion Primo Carnera. The shooting of this scene was an event on the set since Baer was a real-life contender for Carnera's Heavyweight title. People came from far and wide to watch the thrilling fight being filmed. Former Heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey was an added treat playing the referee. The following year, Max Baer did beat Primo Carnera in the ring for real, and Baer became the new World Heavyweight Champion of 1934.

"The film was a hit, with Frances Marion's screenplay winning an Academy Award nomination. The critics praised Max Baer's winning personality and natural screen presence; in fact, many people felt that he walked away with the movie. Following his boxing career, Baer managed to make a living as an actor, appearing in several feature films throughout the 1940s and 50s, including The Harder They Fall (1956).