The Champ

The Champ (1931)

The knockout picture of the year!

A broken-down alcoholic prizefighter struggles to keep custody of his adoring son.

Date of release
1931-11-21
TMDB
7.1 / 10 (65)
Runtime
1h 26m
Genres
Drama, Family
Director
King Vidor

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Filmed in: Mexico
  • Awards: 2 · Nominations: 4. Including: Academy Award for Best Actor; Academy Award for Best Story

The Champ is a 1931 American pre-Code film starring Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper and directed by King Vidor from a screenplay by Frances Marion, Leonard Praskins and Wanda Tuchock. The picture tells the story of a washed-up alcoholic boxer (Beery) attempting to put his life back together for the sake of his young son (Cooper). Beery won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, Frances Marion won the Academy Award for Best Story, and the film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director. In February 2020, the film was shown at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival, as part of a retrospective dedicated to King Vidor's career.

Production

Screenwriter Frances Marion wrote the title role specifically for Wallace Beery, whose formerly flourishing career, which had almost abruptly ended with the advent of sound, had been revitalized in 1930 with an Academy Award nomination for The Big House and the huge success of Min and Bill with Marie Dressler.

The film had its world premiere on November 9, 1931, at the Astor Theatre in New York City. Beery flew his own plane from Los Angeles, California cross-country to attend the premiere. After the film's debut, Beery declared Cooper was a "great kid" but that he would not work with the child actor again, a promise he broke within the year for the remake of Treasure Island and The Bowery.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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