Rent Champion (1949)

3.7 of 5 from 72 ratings
1h 38min
Rent Champion Online DVD & Blu-ray Rental
  • General info
  • Available formats
Synopsis:
Michael "Midge" Kelly (Douglas) is a boxer whose fight to the top is unhampered by ethics or gratitude. A hero to his fans, his friends know him to be a selfish egomaniac who allows nothing to stand in his way. After winning a fight he was supposed to throw, Mike's life is threatened by the mob, and he is only saved through the intervention of a woman who becomes yet another pawn in his climb up the ladder. Ultimately he is forced to re-enter the ring and confront his biggest opponent...himself.
Actors:
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Directors:
Producers:
Stanley Kramer
Voiced By:
Polly Bergen
Writers:
Carl Foreman, Ring Lardner
Others:
Dimitri Tiomkin, Frank Planer, Harry Gerstad
Studio:
Blackhorse Entertainment
Genres:
Classics, Drama, Sports & Sport Films
Collections:
10 Films to Watch if You Like: Licorice Pizza, Cinema Paradiso's 2022 Centenary Club, Films to Watch If You Like..., Oscar Nominations Competition 2024, A Brief History of Film...
Awards:

1950 Oscar Best Editing

BBFC:
Release Date:
16/06/2008
Run Time:
98 minutes
Languages:
English Mono
Subtitles:
None
DVD Regions:
Region 2
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Full Screen 1.37:1
Colour:
B & W
BBFC:
Release Date:
06/12/2021
Run Time:
99 minutes
Languages:
English
Subtitles:
English Hard of Hearing
Formats:
Pal
Aspect Ratio:
Full Screen 1.37:1
Colour:
B & W
BLU-RAY Regions:
B
Bonus:
  • Brand new audio commentary by professor and film scholar Jason A. Ney
  • Stills Gallery

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Reviews (1) of Champion

Boxing noir. - Champion review by Steve

Spoiler Alert
09/02/2021

The same year as  Robert Wise's The Set-Up, his old associate Mark Robson made Champion which is a similarly scathing critique of American individualism made via a boxing picture, but with a very different narrative approach. This is about how much humanity a poor boxer must divest in order to succeed, and the sociopathic exploitation of others that must happen for him to achieve personal wealth and status. It is a dystopic analysis of the mythology of the American dream.

In a deserved star making performance, Kirk Douglas (as Midge Kelly) is the dirt poor nobody who has suffered the indignity of poverty and when at absolute rock bottom is taken on by Paul Stewart's cynical boxing manager. In his fight to become champion, Kelly betrays everyone he encounters on the way.

There is an excellent support cast in Champion, led by Arthur Kennedy as the boxer's brother who has a manifest physical injury where the fighter has a hidden moral affliction. Kennedy loses out painfully to Douglas' unrestrained egotism. He is very affecting in the shadows of the film.

The boxing scenes are superb (with Douglas very convincing) and Harry Gerstad got an Oscar for editing. Franz Planer's photography is as ever gorgeous. But it mainly scores as a vehicle for Kirk Douglas who is remarkable in a very physical role not all that common in melodrama in that era. His implicit and explicit aura of violent threat is very powerful.

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