Golden Boy (1939)

Golden Boy
Directed by Rouben Mamoulian
Written by Lewis Meltzer, Daniel Taradash, Sara Y. Mason and Victor Heerman from a play by Clifford Odets
1939/USA
Columbia Pictures Corporation
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Joe Bonaparte: [Last Lines] Poppa, I’ve come home.[/box]

This is worth seeing if only for the very young William Holden and an amazing performance by Lee J. Cobb — oh, wait!  there’s Barbara Stanwyck too.

Joe Bonaparte (Holden) is the light of his father’s (Cobb) life.  Joe is a fine violinist and Poppa has bought him a rare Italian violin for his 21st birthday.  But Joe is sick of the ribbing he takes from the guys and anxious to make money.  It turns out that he is also a fabulous boxer.  He seeks out manager Tom Moody and Moody reluctantly substitutes Joe for an ailing fighter.  He wins the fight and Moody takes over his management.  But Joe still has ties to home and his music.  Moody sends out his girlfriend Lorna (Stanwyck) to seduce him back into training.  She is more successful than Moody intended, hooking Joe into the bargain.  When gangster Eddie Fuseli (Joseph Calleia) tries to buy Joe, Moody resists but Joe, thinking he has been spurned by Lorna, goes along for the opportunity for a championship fight.  Has Joe sold his soul into the bargain?

When you are dealing with a Clifford Odets screenplay you know you are in for some very literate dialogue and heaping helpings of social consciousness.  Other than that, this is a fairly predictable boxing movie.   But the acting pulls this above the ordinary.  Lee J. Cobb, only seven years older than Holden, absolutely disappears into the character of his just-off-the-boat Italian father.  It is truly wonderful to behold.  And then Holden is extraordinarily gorgeous with his mop of curly hair and Stanwyck is her very able self.  I enjoyed it.

Victor Young received an Academy Award nomination for his beautiful original score.

For TCM clip from movie go here:  http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/221247/Golden-Boy-Movie-Clip-You-Better-Than-That-.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuE4nHiXTf0

TCM Intro by Robert Osborne