Iron Man

Jeff Chandler is a coal miner who wants to open a radio store with his girl, Evelyn Keyes. His brother, Stephen McNally, manages him, as much as anyone can. In the ring, Chandler turns into an animal, barely held back from killing his opponents. Sports columnist Jim Backus keeps writing that he should be thrown out of boxing. When Miss Keyes and McNally pay off another boxer to throw the fight, and Chandler finds out, he walks out, determined to become the world champion and earn the respect of the booing crowds.

I haven't seen the 1931 version of this movie, in which Tod Browning directs Lew Ayres in the lead role, but this is as brutal a movie as the Production Code would permit. Carl Guthrie's camerawork makes Chandler look like an animal during the matches. While there's some pop psychology to explain Chandler's savagery, that is the point of this effective movie.

Bob

This film is a remake of Iron Man of 1931 with Lew Ayres and Jean Harlow, also made in 1937 as Some Blondes are Dangerous, but here Evelyn Keyes, the blonde is not the central character. Jeff Chandler, Rock Hudson and James Arness are workers in a mine and also boxers. Chandler wins his fights when he hates and gets furious, he becomes an animal and also the public does not like him. Rock Hudson is the nice guy and Evelyn Keyes is Chandler's girlfriend and Stephen McNally his brother and also agent. The fight scenes do not look very real, specially when Chandler gets punched on the face, it does not seem to affect him, it is almost like he does not defend himself, he only cares about hitting. I think that in a real fight he would be knocked out in a couple of minutes fighting this way. The film is interesting, specially because of the presence of Hudson and Arness at the beginning of their careers.

Can it be merely coincidence, even in the relative innocence of 1951, that the boxers in Iron Man go by the names of Coke and Speed? (The fact that they're played by Jeff Chandler and Rock Hudson, whom viewers today will identify as, respectively, a cross-dresser and a gay man, adds another latter-day dimension to their sweat-lubricated clinches.) In any case, their stimulating monikers do no injustice to the story – a jacked-up, strung-out fight movie that's a worthy entry in that oddly distinguished, brutal genre.

It starts in Coaltown, Pennsylvania, a mining community where the only excitement is wondering when the shafts will cave in. When Chandler takes on a bully and thoroughly thrashes him, his brother (Steve McNally) and girl (Evelyn Keyes) see a glamorous future and fast money for him – and for them. The only catch is that Chandler isn't a born boxer: He's clumsy and gets pummeled. But when he's hurt (and then jeered at), he falls into blind, murderous rages, going after his opponents by fair means or foul. He wins purses and titles but not the hearts of the fans – they don't like dirty fighters, and come only in hopes of seeing him get his comeuppance. But they keep coming, and soon Chandler's poised for the heavyweight title.

The story, ably directed by Joseph Pevney, follows a familiar course: The fallings-out with his brother and his wife, the big-time sportswriter who becomes his manager (Jim Backus), the fixed fight, the fallacious sense of invincibility. And the ending is a little too pat and feel-good. But it's one of Chandler's best roles (he's as good as Kirk Douglas in The Champion, if not so convincing as Robert Ryan in The Set-Up, both of two years earlier). Evelyn Keyes has but two things to do: First egg him on, then beg him to stop, but she's, as always, distinctive. (She gets slugged by him, too.)

Hudson's another case entirely. In the part of the loyal sparring-partner who turns into the challenger, he's confined to playing L'il Abner – a good-natured but dim-witted lout. But in the final grudge-match, he reverts to the sheer, feral physicality of which he was capable but rarely called upon to display – and, in its final scene, he all but steals the movie away from Chandler. He's the breakout star.

Now I did struggle with the idea of Jeff Chandler as a red-misted boxing champion, but here he acquits him self adequately enough. He's coal miner "Coke" who dreams of wedding his girl "Rose" (Evelyn Keyes) and buying a radio store. His rather more venal brother "George" (Stephen McNally) runs a pool hall and discovers that when his sibling gets cross, really cross, his fists can do his talking for him. The ring beckons, and success follows - but at a price. "Coke" is a brute. He fights legal, but dirty - and the crowd gradually learn to loathe him. Finally he has had enough and wants to stop, but discovers that his now wife is embroiled in some match-fixing with "George" and he faces quite a dilemma - one epitomised at the denouement with a bout with the equally unlikely pugilist Rock Hudson ("Speed"). It's another of the stories set in an industrial town where opportunities were scant and where boxing was a route out if you were prepared to take and give a beating. This one tries to introduce the concept of a conscience in the lead character and the photography does give some sort of indication as to the brutality in the ring. It's a solid film that has just about enough action and a message to convey about right (hooks) and wrong.

A coal miner who dreams of his own radio shop is lured into a boxing ring where he becomes a kind of animal hated by the public. Box is a film genre that remains to this day committed to tradition. It underwent few changes in dramatic elements or peculiarities of plots. Old scripts used to tell the same stories. They hardly become outdated. (Take the Rocky franchise for example) Most often (like here) it's the story of a poor guy who finds self-fulfillment in fighting, in order to be successful. At the same time either old friends break with him or he with them. Finally, a decision must be made as to whether the hero will look back to his former values or allow success within such a brutal business lose him in every respect. Director Joseph Pevney has some interesting titles in his filmography, but Iron Man surely isn't the best one.