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I fully agree with a previous reviewer that this film is really something extra special. In fact it should be on of everyone's list of the best fight films ever made!
Both energetically played - particularly by the three leads, Jack Oakie, Warren Hymer and William Collier, Senior - and brilliantly directed by Harry Joe Brown at an amazingly fast clip with the most realistic fight action this reviewer has ever seen - it easily ranks as the most engrossing, most realistic, most fast-paced and most action-full sports film ever made.
I don't know if it was really shot at Madison Square Garden, but it certainly looks that way. My guess is that the huge crowd shots were filmed at the Gardens and the marvelously realistic boxing sequences (of which there are many) at the studio. The action never lets up from go to whoa, and the boxing sequences are so adroitly staged, you would swear that all these shattering boxing bouts were actually done for real.
Jack Oakie never gave a better or more engrossing performance. And what is even more important, it certainly looks like all the Madison Square Garden footage was actually shot on the spot! How it was done so persuasively, I can't imagine! I commend all the players, not only the three leads (for some unknown reason, Warren Hymer is actually not listed as one of the leads - I think he has seventh place), but particularly Thomas Meighan and Marion Nixon.
score 10/10
JohnHowardReid 14 October 2017
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3831117/ |
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