Ex-Champ
- June 16, 1939 (1939-06-16) (US)[1]
Ex-Champ is a 1939 American drama film, directed by Phil Rosen. It stars Victor McLaglen, Tom Brown, and Nan Grey, and was released on June 16, 1939.
Plot
Tom Grey is a former boxing champ who has fallen on hard times and is now working as a doorman in an apartment building. He has been a single parent, raising his son, Jeffrey, and daughter, Joan. Jeffrey has graduated college and now works on Wall Street. Tom has taken a young boxer under his wing, Bob Hill, who has worked his way up to a shot at the title. He is also dating Tom's daughter.
Meanwhile, Jeffrey has gotten engaged to Doris Courtney, a high society woman, who lives in the luxury apartment building where Tom is now the doorman. In order to finance his lavish lifestyle, he embezzles funds from his firm and loses them all. When his father finds out, he fears for his son, although the son feels nothing but shame towards his father. Tom cannot bear the thought of his son going to prison, so he scrapes together enough money, and tells his son to bet against Bob in the upcoming championship match. He then makes arrangements for Bob to throw the match. However, through several mix-ups, Jeffrey actually bets on Bob, who then goes on to win the championship.
Cast
- Victor McLaglen as Tom Grey
- Tom Brown as Bob Hill
- Nan Grey as Joan Grey
- William Frawley as Mushy Harrington
- Constance Moore as Doris Courtney
- Donald Briggs as Jeffrey Grey
- Samuel S. Hinds as Commissioner Nash
- Thurston Hall as Mr. Courtney
- Marc Lawrence as Bill Crosley
- Charles Halton as Trilby
Reception
The New York Daily News gave the film a good review, saying that while it used an old concept about an aging boxer, the film "acquires an individual appeal from the calibre of its cast and the injection of new angles into and old formula".[2] The Spokesman-Review also enjoyed the film, it "is good entertainment, — plenty of action, plenty of drama and plenty of humor". They complimented McLaglen's performance, and gave special applause to the work of William Frawley as McLaglen's sidekick.[3] The Philadelphia Inquirer was less impressed with the picture, calling it a "sentimental story" which relied heavily on "film and fictional cliches" which ended in a "maudlin haze". They felt that McLaglen's performance was "sappy rather than sympathetic". They felt that Brown was not believable albeit pleasant, and that Moore and Frawley struggled in their roles.[4] The Film Daily gave the picture a lukewarm review, saying that it was "made for the thrill trade who do not inquire too closely into plot construction, this one shapes up as a fairly exciting story of the prize ring." The felt the direction and cinematography were just okay.[5]
References
- ^ "Ex-Champ". American Film Institute. Archived from the original on June 3, 2018. Retrieved June 2, 2018.
- ^ Dorothy Masters (May 12, 1939). "'Ex-Champ' Brings McLaglen To Screen". Daily News. p. 791. Retrieved June 13, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "M'Laglen Tops in "Ex-Champ"". The Spokesman-Review. July 27, 1939. p. 5. Retrieved June 13, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "McLaglen in 'Ex-Champ' Shown At Stanton". The Philadelphia Inquirer. June 2, 1939. p. 17. Retrieved June 13, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ ""Ex-Champ"". The Film Daily. May 17, 1939. p. 6. Retrieved June 11, 2023.
External links
- Ex-Champ at IMDb
- Ex-Champ at the TCM Movie Database
- Ex-Champ at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
- v
- t
- e
- Are All Men Alike? (1920)
- The Path She Chose (1920)
- The Road to Divorce (1920)
- The Lure of Youth (1921)
- The Little Fool (1921)
- Extravagance (1921)
- The World's Champion (1922)
- The Young Rajah (1922)
- Handle With Care (1922)
- The Bonded Woman (1922)
- Across the Continent (1922)
- Being Respectable (1924)
- Abraham Lincoln (1924)
- Lovers' Lane (1924)
- This Woman (1924)
- The Bridge of Sighs (1925)
- The Heart of a Siren (1925)
- The White Monkey (1925)
- Wandering Footsteps (1925)
- Rose of the Tenements (1926)
- The Adorable Deceiver (1926)
- The Exquisite Sinner (1926)
- A Woman's Heart (1926)
- California or Bust (1927)
- The Cancelled Debt (1927)
- Closed Gates (1927)
- The Woman Who Did Not Care (1927)
- The Cruel Truth (1927)
- Stolen Pleasures (1927)
- Heaven on Earth (1927)
- In the First Degree (1927)
- Pretty Clothes (1927)
- Salvation Jane (1927)
- Stranded (1927)
- Thumbs Down (1927)
- Burning Up Broadway (1928)
- Undressed (1928)
- Modern Mothers (1928)
- The Branded Man (1928)
- Marry the Girl (1928)
- The Apache (1928)
- The Peacock Fan (1929)
- The Faker (1929)
- Extravagance (1930)
- Lotus Lady (1930)
- The Rampant Age (1930)
- Second Honeymoon (1930)
- Worldly Goods (1930)
- El Codigo Penal (1930)
- Alias – the Bad Man (1931)
- Arizona Terror (1931)
- Branded Men (1931)
- The Pocatello Kid (1931)
- Two Gun Man (1931)
- Range Law (1931)
- Young Blood (1932)
- Whistlin' Dan (1932)
- The Gay Buckaroo (1932)
- The Vanishing Frontier (1932)
- A Man's Land (1932)
- Texas Gun Fighter (1932)
- Klondike (1932)
- Lena Rivers (1932)
- Self Defense (1932)
- Shadows of Sing Sing (1933)
- Black Beauty (1933)
- Devil's Mate (1933)
- Kiss of Araby (1933)
- The Sphinx (1933)
- The Phantom Broadcast (1933)
- Picture Brides (1933)
- Hold the Press (1933)
- Dangerous Corner (1934)
- Take the Stand (1934)
- Cheaters (1934)
- Little Men (1934)
- Woman in the Dark (1934)
- Beggars in Ermine (1934)
- West of the Pecos (1934)
- Born to Gamble (1935)
- The Unwelcome Stranger (1935)
- Death Flies East (1935)
- The Calling of Dan Matthews (1935)
- Ellis Island (1936)
- Easy Money (1936)
- The Bridge of Sighs (1936)
- The President's Mystery (1936)
- It Couldn't Have Happened – But It Did (1936)
- Brilliant Marriage (1936)
- Tango (1936)
- Missing Girls (1936)
- Three of a Kind (1936)
- It Could Happen to You (1937)
- Jim Hanvey, Detective (1937)
- Roaring Timber (1937)
- Two Wise Maids (1937)
- Youth on Parole (1937)
- The Marines Are Here (1938)
- Missing Evidence (1939)
- Ex-Champ (1939)
- Phantom of Chinatown (1940)
- Queen of the Yukon (1940)
- Forgotten Girls (1940)
- Double Alibi (1940)
- The Crooked Road (1940)
- The Deadly Game (1941)
- I Killed That Man (1941)
- Murder by Invitation (1941)
- Paper Bullets (1941)
- Roar of the Press (1941)
- Spooks Run Wild (1941)
- Road to Happiness (1941)
- The Man with Two Lives (1942)
- The Mystery of Marie Roget (1942)
- A Gentle Gangster (1943)
- You Can't Beat the Law (1943)
- Wings Over the Pacific (1943)
- Charlie Chan in the Secret Service (1944)
- The Chinese Cat (1944)
- Call of the Jungle (1944)
- Return of the Ape Man (1944)
- Army Wives (1944)
- Black Magic (1944)
- Captain Tugboat Annie (1945)
- In Old New Mexico (1945)
- The Jade Mask (1945)
- The Scarlet Clue (1945)
- The Red Dragon (1946)
- The Shadow Returns (1946)
- Step By Step (1946)
- The Strange Mr. Gregory (1946)
- The Secret of St. Ives (1949)