What the heck was with the trend of movies in the early 1930s about parents who pretended not to want their kids for the kids' own good? Was it that the Depression was seeping into peoples' consciousness and movies like this tapped into their own insecurities about being able to provide for their own families?
I watched "Min and Bill" not long before "The Champ," another movie starring Wallace Beery that found Marie Dressler pretending not to care a whit about the foster child she raised into young adulthood so that the daughter could go off and have a better life with some rich people. Then in "The Champ," Beery comes to the realization that he's no good for his kid (played by the lachrymose Jackie Cooper) and goes as far as slugging him in the face in an effort to convince the child that he really wants to go live with his mom. Sheesh.
"The Champ" is pretty maudlin in subject matter, though it's got that gritty look common to movies made during the Depression that makes the film feel less sentimental than it is. This movie LOOKS like the Great Depression, like photos you've seen taken of it, and it's fascinating to me to watch movies that capture a time in history because they were actually made during it rather than trying to recreate it.
Beery received an Oscar for his performance, though not initially. Back then, the votes were still being tabulated during the Oscar ceremony, and Fredric March was declared the winner for "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Then, at the end of the ceremony, it was announced that Beery had tied with March (he actually lost by something like three votes, but that was considered a tie then), the only instance of a tie in the Best Actor category.
Workhorse writer Frances Marion also won an Oscar for her original story, the second one she would win for a film starring Wallace Beery (the first being "The Big House" from two years earlier).
Grade: B
I watched "Min and Bill" not long before "The Champ," another movie starring Wallace Beery that found Marie Dressler pretending not to care a whit about the foster child she raised into young adulthood so that the daughter could go off and have a better life with some rich people. Then in "The Champ," Beery comes to the realization that he's no good for his kid (played by the lachrymose Jackie Cooper) and goes as far as slugging him in the face in an effort to convince the child that he really wants to go live with his mom. Sheesh.
"The Champ" is pretty maudlin in subject matter, though it's got that gritty look common to movies made during the Depression that makes the film feel less sentimental than it is. This movie LOOKS like the Great Depression, like photos you've seen taken of it, and it's fascinating to me to watch movies that capture a time in history because they were actually made during it rather than trying to recreate it.
Beery received an Oscar for his performance, though not initially. Back then, the votes were still being tabulated during the Oscar ceremony, and Fredric March was declared the winner for "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Then, at the end of the ceremony, it was announced that Beery had tied with March (he actually lost by something like three votes, but that was considered a tie then), the only instance of a tie in the Best Actor category.
Workhorse writer Frances Marion also won an Oscar for her original story, the second one she would win for a film starring Wallace Beery (the first being "The Big House" from two years earlier).
Grade: B