Cinema Revisited: Knockout (1941)

Knockout

Directed by William Clemens. Cast: Arthur Kennedy, Olympe Bradna, Virginia Field, Anthony Quinn, Cliff Edwards, Cornel Wilde, Frank Wilcox, Ben Welden. Running time 73 minutes. Released March 29, 1941.

Quickie programmer made for Warner Brothers' B unit that brought up the bottom half of double bills at the better movie houses, and was top billed at neighborhood theaters. It features a lot of the clichés usually found in boxing movies, and is sustained by solid performers and competent direction.

The story deals with Johnny Rocket, a fighter who has decided his next bout will be his last. His sly manager, Pelky, sells his contract to sharp operator Trego without telling him that Johnny is quitting the game. Johnny gets married , his wife is expecting a child, but they have trouble making ends meet with the small time coaching jobs he is able to pick up. He needs money badly, so, in desperation he returns to Trego and starts fighting again. Trego makes him a top level boxing star, but his personal life pays a price, and his ego gets out of control.

Arthur Kennedy settles comfortably in the role of the fighter, exuding the assured cockiness that sustains him until an attractive “dame” distracts him from his supportive wife. Anthony Quinn is effectively imposing as the fight manager. Olympe Bradna is the long suffering wife, Virginia Field is the dangerous female reporter. The cast is dotted with familiar faces like Cliff Edwards, Frank Faylen, and Ben Welden. There is a certain extra status to seeing Anthony Quinn in a fight manager role, as one of his finest performances would be as a punch drunk fighter himself in the screen version of Rod Serling’s “Requiem for a Heavyweight” (1962). Meanwhile, Arthur Kennedy had already appeared with James Cagney in the Warner boxing drama “City for Conquest” (1940), but did not play a fighter. Same with his appearance in “Champion” (1948), featuring Kirk Douglas as a the title character. This is only Kennedy’s third film. “City for Conquest” was his first. In between these he was in Raoul Walsh’s classic “High Sierra” with Humphrey Bogart and Ida Lupino. Interestingly, Anthony Quinn also appears in “City for Conquest,” and also not as part of the fight game.

Director William Clemens was a master at aggressive B movies, having helmed the Nancy Drew series for Warner Brothers, as well as films with The Dead End Kids, and the Falcon series at RKO. He does a nice job of balancing an uneven script that wavers between the toughness of the fight game and the lighter, more domestic scenes. The taut action of the prize ring never seems to disrupt accompanying scenes of Johnny at home, not even an emotional sequence when a telegram indicating his wife is having their baby is withheld by the manager just before Johnny goes out for his big fight. He finds out the next morning that his wife has lost the baby.

The fight scenes are well choreographed, B movie producer Bryan Foy drawing from the big studio’s resources to choreograph them effectively. The drama of Johnny wanting to raise enough money but quit before he becomes punch drunk is augmented by having actual punch drunk former fighters haunting the locker rooms. But his cockiness moves to the forefront of his personality, and soon he is away from home more than he is around. This is the dramatic conflict that the film focuses on.

Often in films of this sort, it is the management that forces a generally nice guy into staying in the game. This time, it is the fighter himself whose arrogance causes him to make a lot of decisions that affect the people who truly do care. The fight manager has as much trouble with Johnny as his family. Johnny is too confident, his success going to his head to where he doesn’t maintain a good training schedule or concentrate on business. His family is shunted even further aside. Of course circumstances put him back on the right track, and the ending is happy and gratifying, but not before there are accusations, suspensions, and the usual comeuppance.

As with most B movies, be they low budget efforts from poverty row, or a film like this that supports a bigger studio, “Knockout” is breezy and entertaining, with good action and tight drama.

The trailer for “Knockout” can be seen here: Knockout Trailer