Beery and company are in a Mexican city, idling while waiting for a fight to be arranged. Dink by chance meets his biological mother, Irene Rich, who implores wealthy husband Hale Hamilton to pry Dink away from his drunkard, gambling, and often flat broke father. Marcia Mae Jones has a brief supporting role as Irene's precocious daughter.
How others will see it. Today, The Champ is known as the original version of the 1979 Jon Voight - Ricky Schroder remake. It is the best-known, Oscar-winning role of a lifetime for Wallace Beery, and also perhaps the most important role in the busy decades-long career of Jackie Cooper. Though not his first, as Cooper was already a veteran of Hal Roach's "Little Rascals" shorts.
The Champ had two Oscar wins and an additional two nominations. It was more of a prestige film than a box office goliath, and the imdb.com user vote total is only about 2K. The imdb.com user rating ranges from 7.2 (men in their 30s) to 8.0 (women under 30). The female audience likely sympathizes with Cooper, while men identify more closely with has-been screw-up Beery.
How I felt about it. Made just two years into the talkie era, The Champ can be forgiven somewhat for stereotypical story elements, since the film defined the genre prior to Rocky. At least here, the managers aren't crooked, the fights aren't fixed, and no one is fighting for the "champeenship of the wold."
One thing that has never changed over the years are the boxing scenes. Our hero is on the ropes, just shy of knocked out, before making a terrific comeback to win by knockout. Such things are not unprecented in boxing but they are very rare. The same can be said about dying practically in the ring: it happens, but hardly ever, and it is never the winning fighter.
We also wonder at The Champ winning a racehorse in a craps game. He shows it off to his ever-enthusiastic son, and it is in a race the very next scene. The horse is about to win the race (!) when it collapses before the finish (!) yet both the horse and jockey are uninjured.
I understand why Dink is sent off to live with his rich mother, especially after the Champ has to cool his heels in a Mexican jail. What I don't understand is how Dink returns to the Champ, despite a cold. It is true that Dink misses his father, but would not compel his mother to return Dink to his broke, gambling, drinking, and unemployed father. Who can't do anything except lie in bed until his son returns.
The transitions between scenes can be jarring. It is almost as if the film was written to be more than two hourse long, with the cut scenes providing bridges between the more dramatic scenes that survived.
All that said, there is much to like about this movie. Its 1979 remake has been voted the "saddest movie of all time", but the present film is almost a comedy apart from its tearjerker finale. Likable lug Wallace Beery deserved his Best Actor Oscar, and Jackie Cooper is also a charmer. It is odd that they sleep in the same bed, but this is 1931, and the Champ is poor.
Roscoe Ates is welcome in any movie, and King Vidor keeps the story moving along at an agreeable pace. In such an early film, it is nice to see a black actor (Jesse Scott) in a role that could have been played by a white actor. Perhaps the stepfather (Hale Hamilton) is too forgiving of his wife's newfound devotion to Dink, but at least his character has not become a stereotypical antagonist.
The real reason, though, that the film works is that it is mostly from the perspective of Dink, a born optimist and plugger who never loses faith in his regularly disappointing father. As for the Champ, he would prefer to go out in a blaze of glory than to continue to be a bad example and poor provider for Dink.