This is the second time I watched this story, the first time it was called "The Crowd Roars", a 1938 film with Robert Taylor in the Tommy McCoy role and Edward Arnold as the businessman/gambler Cain. All the principal characters in this one retain the exact same names from the earlier story, except for the odd spelling of 'Caighn' and an extra letter in the Carrson name; I wonder why they did that. Differentiating those names didn't do anything to affect the story.
For me, without a significant variation between the two pictures, the same flaws appear in the story line here as in the earlier one. No sense repeating myself, my review of "The Crowd Roars" goes into some detail. One new element however added some entertainment value at the beginning of the picture. It was when Tommy (Mickey Rooney) joined his Dad Brian (James Dunn) in that energetically choreographed hoofer number. That was really quite the routine.
As for the boxing sequences, Rooney's character showed some genuine progress as a fighter over the course of the story. Starting out he seemed to be flailing more than punching in his first few bouts, however even in his later matches Tommy seemed to be extending himself a bit too much to come across as a real boxer. I had to rewind a scene from the seventh round in that final fight Tommy had against Patsy Cigones (Larry Cisneros). Check it out and you'll notice the referee actually held Tommy up to prevent him from falling after taking a shot from his opponent!
And speaking of that last match, just get a good look at the crowd at ringside. I don't think I've ever seen another boxing movie in which the fans got this worked up over a fight. Some of the individual reactions show the attendees really getting into it, you would think this was a real match with big time money on the line.
Besides the principals, pay attention for a whole slew of the era's character actors popping up here and there in limited scenes. You had folks like Milburn Stone, Ray Teal, Jane Wyman, Shelley Winters and Bob Steele as boxer Sailor Graves going up against Tommy in one of the preliminary matches. There's even David Gorcey in an early scene, one of the few times you'll see him in a picture where he's not a Bowery Boy with brother Leo.
For me, without a significant variation between the two pictures, the same flaws appear in the story line here as in the earlier one. No sense repeating myself, my review of "The Crowd Roars" goes into some detail. One new element however added some entertainment value at the beginning of the picture. It was when Tommy (Mickey Rooney) joined his Dad Brian (James Dunn) in that energetically choreographed hoofer number. That was really quite the routine.
As for the boxing sequences, Rooney's character showed some genuine progress as a fighter over the course of the story. Starting out he seemed to be flailing more than punching in his first few bouts, however even in his later matches Tommy seemed to be extending himself a bit too much to come across as a real boxer. I had to rewind a scene from the seventh round in that final fight Tommy had against Patsy Cigones (Larry Cisneros). Check it out and you'll notice the referee actually held Tommy up to prevent him from falling after taking a shot from his opponent!
And speaking of that last match, just get a good look at the crowd at ringside. I don't think I've ever seen another boxing movie in which the fans got this worked up over a fight. Some of the individual reactions show the attendees really getting into it, you would think this was a real match with big time money on the line.
Besides the principals, pay attention for a whole slew of the era's character actors popping up here and there in limited scenes. You had folks like Milburn Stone, Ray Teal, Jane Wyman, Shelley Winters and Bob Steele as boxer Sailor Graves going up against Tommy in one of the preliminary matches. There's even David Gorcey in an early scene, one of the few times you'll see him in a picture where he's not a Bowery Boy with brother Leo.