Champion (1949): Mark Robson’s Oscar-Nominated Boxing Melodrama, Starring Kirk Douglas

Produced by Stanley Kramer, and directed by Mark Robson, Champion is the boxing movie that catapulted Kirk Douglas, in his first Oscar nomination, to major stardom.

Grade: B+ (**** out of *****)

Champion
Theatrical release poster

Douglas plays the titular role, Midge Kelly, an ambitious, ruthless prizefighter that would stop at nothing on his path to success. Along the way, he sacrifices family relationships, friends, and his own code of ethics.

Made on a modest budget of half a million dollars, the film offered Douglas a lower fee than what was the norm, but he wanted to play this challenging role. Brutally realistic by standards of the time, “Champion” center on a boxer who batters his way to the top of his profession, while oblivious to all issues ethical and familial. The fans perceive him as a hero, but those close to him realize he’s become a viciously selfish man.

Unfolding backwards, the tale begins at present, when Kelly enjoys his greatest triumph, then flashes back to recount his earlier life and rise to fame.

It begins with a trip that Midge and his crippled brother Connie (Arthur Kennedy) take by railroad to California, where Midge is about to acquire a road café from a wartime Navy buddy. Mugged and thrown off the train by hoboes, they are given a lift on the highway by a prizefighter named Johnny Dunne (John Day) and his woman, Grace (Marilyn Maxwell).

In Kansas City, Midge enters a boxing event for little money, during which he is beaten. A manager, Tommy Haley (Paul Stewart), who senses Midge’s ambition, makes an offer, but Midge rejects it, and he and his brother proceed to California, where they find out that their café investment is a fraud.

Broke, they take jobs at another café, owned by Lew Bryce (Harry Shanon) and his daughter Emma (Ruth Roman), a nice girl to whom Midge is immediately attracted. After being forced to get married, Midge leaves Emma and his brother and moves to L.A., seeking the fight manager who had made him an offer.

Coached by Haley, Midge absorbs all the necessary skills and begins to ascend. Later on, he refuses to throw a fight, as the syndicate instructs him, instead winning the fight by battering opponent Dunne to a bloody hulk. Socially, Midge uses Grace, and then dumps her for the beautiful wife (Lola Albright) of his new boss, who in turn proves that he could be induced by money to end the affair.

In the end, Midge joins brother Connie at their mother’s deathbed, where he learns that his wife wishes to marry Connie. Seeking revenge and reinstatement, Johnny Dunne gets a rematch with the champ, proving that success had turned Midge softer and weaker. Midge summons his strength and wins but is badly injured; he dies as Connie and Emma arrive. Asked for a statement by the press, Connie decides to maintain the mythic status of his brother and not to disillusion his fans by saying: “He was a champion, and he went out like a champion. He was a credit to the fight game to the very end.”

The film was shot in 20 days on a low budget of about $550,000.

The success of the film created opportunities for its makers: Kirk Douglas signed a seven-year, million-dollar contract with Warner, Robson was signed by Samuel Goldwyn, writer Carl Foreman was in demand and Lola Albright and Ruth Roman were signed to studio contracts.

Champion Vs. The Set-Up: Two Boxing Films Released in 1949

RKO noticed some troubling similarities between Champion and its own boxing film, The Set-Up (1949). RKO asked Kramer to reshoot the scene in which Midge fights honestly instead of throwing the match, but Kramer denied any similarities and refused to alter Champion. RKO alleged that Robson had access to material from The Set-Up because he was working as a director for the studio when the film was produced.

In response, in March 1949, RKO rushed The Set-Up for release and sued the filmmakers of Champion in federal court for $500,000 in damages and petitioned for an injunction to halt the release of Champion. In May, a judge recommended that specific scenes be removed and that the resulting film should be reviewed by the court to confirm that Champion was not weakened by the deleted sequences. However, RKO and UA settled out of court when UA agreed to remove 101 feet of film from Champion (about 1% of its length) and few words of dialogue.

Cast

Kirk Douglas as Midge Kelly
Marilyn Maxwell as Grace
Arthur Kennedy as Connie
Paul Stewart as Haley
Ruth Roman as Emma
Lola Albright as Palmer
Luis van Rooten as Harris
Harry Shannon as Lew
John Day as Johnny Dunne
Ralph Sanford as Hammond
Esther Howard as Mrs. Kelly

My Oscar Book:

Oscar Alert

Oscar Nominations: 6

Actor: Kirk Douglas

Supporting Actor: Arthur Kennedy

Screenplay: Carl Foreman

Cinematography (b/w): Frank Planer

Film Editing: Harry Gerstad

Scoring (Drama or Comedy): Dimitri Tiomkin

Oscar Awards: 1

Editing

Oscar Context

In 1949, the Best Actor Oscar went to Broderick Crawford for “All the King’s Men,” which also won Best Picture and Best Director.

The Supporting Actor Oscar went to Dean Jagger for the intense WWII film, “12 O’Clock High.” Joseph L. Mankiewicz won the Screenplay Oscar for “A Letter to Three Wives.” The Cinematography Oscar went to Paul Vogel for the war drama, “Battleground,” which was also nominated for Best Picture. Aaron Copland won the Scoring Award for “The Heiress,” directed by William Wyler.

Cast

Midge Kelly (Kirk Douglas)

Grace Diamond (Marilyn Maxwell)

Connie Kelly (Arthur Kennedy)

Tommy Haley (Paul Stewart)

Emma Bryce (Ruth Roman)

Mrs. Harris Palmer (Lola Albright)

Jerome Harris (Luis Van Rooten)

Johnny Dunne (John Day)

Lew Bryce (Harry Shannon)

Credits

UA (Screen Plays Corporation)