King for a Night

If I were to use 30's movies to get an idea of what sports were the most watched I'd say it was college football, horse racing, and boxing. I've seen more movies featuring those three sports than any other. In "King for a Night" Bud Williams (Chester Morris) got into boxing. He was always fighting anyway so he may as well have been getting paid to do it.

Bud's biggest problem was his ego. He had an oversized ego before he even stepped into a ring. His other problem was his temper. It got him into several fights and even led him to slapping the woman he was on a date with. If he stopped at slapping it would've been enough, but he carried it so far as to kick her out of her OWN car and make her walk back home. He didn't allow her to walk back home as he'd threatened, but it was clear he was a bully.

Bud was on a path of being a pretty despicable character until his sister Lillian (Helen Twelvetrees) got into trouble. It was then that he showed what true character he had underneath his gruff exterior.

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While it is not impossible, making a good film where the leading character is a jerk is a very tall order. In a few cases, such as a biography about Hitler, it's a must as well as films like "The Godfather", but generally folks want to like and connect with the leads in a film...especially in films from the same era as "King for a Night". Unfortunately, Bud Williams (Chester Morris) is a jerk....a braggart who just loves to punch people...both inside and outside the ring.

Bud is the black sheep of the family, as his father is a respectable minister. Much of the film Bud is torn between trying (not very hard) to be respectable and trying to live his own life as a boxer. At the same time, his sister is kind of wicked....following in some of Bud's ways (though she wasn't slap-happy and violent like Bud). So, when she ends up murdering someone, Bud decides to take credit for it because his family already is embarrassed by him. Does this make a lot of sense...well, not really.

The bottom line is that when the murder occurred, which was supposed to be the big climax, I found I didn't care. Bud didn't do it but he was a jerk...and I found myself even laughing at the finale because it seemed so unreal and silly. Overall, a misfire...and the script was just not up to snuff.

This is one of those films where the characters have to explain what their character are like because that's easier than doing it through acting. This is despite the whole first half hour being devoted to an exceptionally dull back story meant to give us an insight into everyone.

It's pretty professionally put together and the acting is natural and realistic (even from Alice White) but you don't feel inclined to want to get to know these people. Since this picture only works if it tugs at your emotions, because you can't engage with the characters or care anything whatsoever for them, it fails badly. Chester Morris's 'Bud' simply isn't likeable because he's not been written as a believable credible person. His 'sister' played by Helen Twelvetrees is similarly unrealistic so when this sweet country girl suddenly becomes a saucy dancer in her new sugar-daddy gangster's nightclub you can't even be bothered to question the absurdity of it.

Director Kurt Neumann who will go on to great things, does his best with a poorly conceived story but because he doesn't let you engage with his characters, the result is sheer blandness. Even with ever increasingly seedy goings on, murder and self-sacrifice, astonishingly the excitement levels are zero. It's a grey and soulless film which you'll forget you've seen almost immediately.

Dated melodrama with a good cast. The situations and dialogue are what hurt this film. The ending is memorable though. Still worth a peek if you can find it.

...but ultimately it is worth waiting for it to build up steam. The first half hour you'll literally be asking yourself - Is this story ever going anywhere? - but indeed it does.

It's about the ne'er do well son, Bud (Chester Morris), of a respected minister, the Reverend John Williams (Grant Mitchell). Everyone seems so worried about Bud that they don't notice that daughter Lillian (Helen Twelvetrees) has a wild streak herself, mainly because she has a steady beau of which the family approves.

After knocking a professional fighter out with one punch during a crap game one day, it is proposed to Bud that he go professional. He wins one local fight, and this makes him think the whole thing is a piece of cake. When he hits the road he finds out different, and pretty soon Bud is back to earning his living as a soda jerk while lying to the folks back home about his success. Lillian follows Bud to New York, takes a job in a chorus, and takes up with a rich man who agrees to fix it so that Bud can fight his way to a championship, just as long as she agrees to be his mistress. At the same time Bud has gotten involved with a brassy chorus girl himself (Evelyn, played by Alice White). Bud wants to marry Evelyn, unaware that she is being kept by a married man who wants things to stay the way they are. How does all of this work out? I'll let you watch and find out.

I know this plot seems to tread lots of familiar precode ground, but the conclusion is truly unique, and the final scene is touching and even positive in a way you would not expect. Chester Morris is very good here as the smart guy who turns out to be not nearly as smart as he thinks he is, and is at the center of this film, but not to be overlooked is the excellent job that Grant Mitchell does as Bud's father. He's very understanding of Bud, and it turns out part of his sympathy is a because of a secret about his past that he's kept from his children all of these years, one that he reveals at the end.

I'd recommend this one for fans of the precodes in general and Chester Morris in particular.