Kid Galahad

Michael Curtiz's boxing film and a typical Warner production of the 1930s: fast, hard and short. Nick Donati is a fight manager on the way down. When Ward, a hotel bellhop, knocks out a rival manager's fighter with a single punch at a party, Donati picks him up and puts him in the ring as Kid Galahad. The problem is that Ward falls in love with Donati's sister, and Donati will not have it. Its strength is having three actors in the same scenes. Edward G. Robinson plays the manager, Bette Davis his girlfriend and Humphrey Bogart the rival. Bogart was still in villain parts at that point, and the coldness here anticipates the stardom to come. The fights are hard for the period; Curtiz cuts the bouts short and keeps the punches in close-up. The film sits in Warner's vein of working-class protagonists: the athlete is treated as an investment and nobody genuinely stands by him. A solid choice for anyone who likes classical Hollywood boxing films and early Robinson and Bogart. The woman's place in the script is narrow, and Davis is left well below what she could do.