"Gentleman Jim" starring Errol Flynn and Alexis Smith

Tonight I watched a movie called "Gentleman Jim" (1942), starring Errol Flynn and Alexis Smith, discovered in a library database search for Flynn, who like Bogart is one of my favorite actors. The Libe doesn't have near as many of his films as they do of Bogie, so I was lucky to find this one as I'd seen all his others

The "Gentleman" of the title is James J. Corbett, a boxer from San Francisco who fought in the late 19th century and became famous for his scientific, skilled approach to a sport that had been dominated mostly by brawlers with only street fighting abilities. Corbett, who began his career in 1887, was lighter than most of the men he fought, but he was also far more athletic. In the movie we see many shots of Flynn moving his feet, dancing around his opponents who stand planted in the ring. Corbett invented the pugilistic footwork that eventually was brought to full flower by Muhammad Ali.

His major claim to fame came when he defeated the Heavyweight Champion of The World, who at that time was the legendary John L. Sullivan. As a kid I had a paperback book on "Famous Sports Heroes". Corbett was profiled in there, as was Sullivan and the similarly-named James J. Jeffries (and a few decades later there was James J. Braddock).

There were several James J's but no James A's. Hmmmmm.......what could have been the deal?

The deal was that I knew who Corbett was even as an eight year old, and I love Errol Flynn, who was excellent in his role as the styish, egotistical boxer, but I just don't like boxing very much. For a few years in the 1980s my friends and I would watch Mike Tyson whenever he fought, and in those days his bouts were often shown on broadcast tv, but the Tyson fights were usually over so quickly that there wasn't much punching involved. Iron Mike would just burst out of his corner at the sound of the first round bell, and he would almost always destroy his opponent within a minute or two. We weren't watching knock down drag out fights that were eventually won by attrition, so I could tolerate a Tyson match because it was just a flurry of knockout punches by Mike against an overmatched opponent, and then it was over, right after it began.

But generally speaking I don't like boxing because I don't like to watch men hitting one another, even with rules and sportsmanship and padded gloves on.

I did like the movie, which was a standard biopic, but presented with great energy by Errol Flynn in his performance as Corbett and non-stop forward motion by director Raoul Walsh, one of the best in the business at that time. There are no wasted scenes or detours into other plotlines. Even the romance between Flynn and Alexis Smith is kept stifled until the final minutes. The whole movie is about Gentleman Jim, whose nickname is ironic because he is really no gentleman at all. Well, he is on the surface - his manners are always in place - but he is also arrogant and insufferable (qualities that Flynn could play to the hilt), and so he is constantly coming into conflict with managers, promoters and boxers who are already established in the burgeoning hierarchy of professional boxing, which has only just begun in the 1860s or thereabouts.

Corbett knows he is better than all the bruisers passing as boxers, guys who are only slightly above cro-magnon status. Errol Flynn plays this attitude up for the entire film. Veteran actor Jack Carter is his best friend and comic foil. Alan Hale Sr. is his Dad. Alexis Smith - as always, 100% class - kinda steals the show in a way as the daughter of a bank president. Flynn was a teller at the bank when his boxing career took off, and as usual they have a Hollywood Movie romance that develops through constant friction. Smith pretends to hate him because she can't stand his arrogance....but really the subtext is that she can indeed stand it, and in fact she loves him for it, because his arrogance is polite and self-effacing.

Subtle were the screenwriters of the 40s. And excellent were the actors of that era, as you know from my constant cheerleading.

I have to say I was surprised, though, to see that "Gentleman Jim" got a 7.7 score on IMDB, exceptionally high for an older movie not known as a "classic". I read some of the online reviews and I see that many people revere this film. It is true that Flynn gave one of his better performances, and that the movie never lags and is entertaining all the way through, with moments of Irish comedy ala John Ford, and boxing scenes that are technically very well staged and comparable to those from later movies.

For me, however, while I liked the movie, I found it to have little to no dramatic tension. The presentation of Corbett's career and his rise from bank teller to heavyweight champ was shown in such a breezy way that it all seemed like fun n' games, a fantasy that became real.

There is almost no conflict in the movie, the stuff that drama is made of. Flynn's happy go lucky portrayal carries the story, and the supporting actors adequately fill in the spaces, but the life history of James J. Corbett is never shown with any emotional depth. It's as if he were a fictional character.

I will still give it Two Thumbs Up because of Errol Flynn's performance and his own athletic ability which is shown in the ring. He was 33 here and still in great shape, though he would in the long run become one of Hollywood's tragic figures by drinking and drugging himself to death at age 50. The coroner said that he had the body of a 75 year old man at that time.

He was great in every movie I've seen him in, however, especially in "Gentleman Jim", and that's his legacy to the constant viewers. Fans like me will be looking him up in the library database for years to come. ////

See you in the morning.  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)