Tennessee Champ

Tennessee Champ (1954)

Approved 05 Mar 1954 • Drama • 1h 13m
Loading...

A little B-picture that M-G-M tossed out, barely promoted and forgot about but one that is better than some of the A-dross from Leo in the same era. Shelley Winters, after an absence of 15 months from the screen, is on the down-side of her sexpot days and the upside of her character days and is excellent as the devoted wife trying to keep her larcency-inclined husband on the up-and-up and has more losses than wins in that department; Kennan Wynn is even better as her fight-manager husband and gives a controlled performance as a blustery character, as opposed to the uncontrolled, mail-it-in, over-the-top blustery characters he later played in many westerns; and Earl Holliman as Wynn's harmonica-playing, punch-drunk handyman is dead on the mark. Story, which strays a bit toward the melodramatic in places, concerns a deacon's son,Daniel Norson(Dewey Martin), who thinks he has killed a man in a fight over a girl and goes on the lam. He is picked up by fight manager Willy Wurble (Keenan Wynn)and, since he owns a deadly punch, becomes a successful prize fighter. But his religious background leads him to refuse to take a dive in a fight Willy has fixed, even though he thinks Willy will turn him in on the murder charge. Creditability flies a little out of the window when Daniel discovers the man he is to fight is actually the man he thought he killed. Daniel's devoutness and faith has made Willy a semi-reformed sinner but that may be only because of lack of opportunity at the moment.

Fred M. Wilcox
Director
Art Cohn, Eustace Cockrell
Writer
Shelley Winters, Keenan Wynn, Dewey Martin
Starring

Language: English
Awards:
Country: United States
Metacritic Score:
DVD Release Date:
Box Office Total:

5.7

IMDb (270 votes)
Loading...