Tuesday, August 28, 2018

The Big Chance (1933)

Young boxer Frankie (John Darrow) is moving up the ranks... however his fights are being fixed by a hoodlum called Flash (Matthew Betz). Flash's plan is for Frankie to get a title fight when he will take a dive and he and his backers will get a big pay off.

A complication arrives when Frankie falls in love with pious church going Mary (Merna Kennedy) and he starts to have second thoughts about Flash's plan. Flash tries to break up Frankie and Mary including using Natalie Moorhead to try and seduce him...

It isn't a bad film just a bit obvious, the fight scenes use a mixture of rather blurry stock footage and close-ups where the boxers have a chat in the middle of the ring! There is some decent humour though especially from Mary's strait laced religious father (Frank La Rue) and plenty of decent one-liners which makes the film worth seeing. Mary's little brother is played by Mickey Rooney in an enjoyable supporting role.