The Joe Louis Story

I saw this film on demand from Netflix and the print was very poor--incredibly dark and fuzzy. Perhaps there are better copies out there. Much of the film consisted of stock footage of Louis' fights and it was hard to tell if this footage was lousy or if it was simply how the rest of the film looked.

Coley Wallace stars as Joe Louis. This was an interesting choice, as Wallace was an amateur boxer--and so he could convincingly play a boxer. In addition, he physically looked reasonably like Louis. As for Wallace, I was surprised to see on IMDb that he was the ONLY person to have ever beaten Rocky Marciano, was one of TWO who beat Marciano AND is one of FOUR who beat Marciano! The only consistent thing the trivia got right on this is that this occurred when Marciano was an amateur.

The film also features the very familiar face of character actor Paul Stewart--an excellent actor that lent the movie a professional look. As for the rest of the cast, they were pretty much unknowns of varying capabilities as actors. A few (such as the one playing his wife, Marva) were rather limp and some of the others were very good.

As far as a biography of Louis goes, this one does have two handicaps. First, it came out just after Louis retired--and his post-boxing life isn't covered. This is a shame, as this period is quite interesting...though a bit depressing. A brief career in pro wrestling, failed marriages and bankruptcy are not especially fun to watch but they all occurred to Louis. Second, biopics of the 40s and 50s tended to be VERY sanitized and must be taken with a grain of salt. There are many examples but the best was "The Babe Ruth Story"--a film that made Ruth look like a combination of a priest and Will Rogers! So, if you want the inside scoop on the real life Louis, this probably isn't your best bet, as it glosses over his mistakes and portrays him mostly in a heroic manner. It did allude to Louis' mismanagement of his money and cockiness before the first Schmeling fight, however--so it wasn't all positive and gloss. However, his personal life is pretty much sanitized--such as why he and his first wife divorced and not even a hint is mentioned of racism--something that MUST have been an issue for the first black heavyweight champ since Jack Johnson.

By the way, the old blind boxer, Sam Langford, who gives Joe a pep talk in the film was a real boxer. He fought over 500 fights and lost only 17--so no wonder he lost his eyesight! It was not him playing himself, however.

If you want to see a movie about Joe Louis, at least up to the point where his career peaks, i recommend that you make a double bill of "The Joe Louis Story" and "Spirit of Youth," the latter STARRING Joe Louis as a young man from a poor family in Alabama who goes on to become the heavyweight champion. That's right -- Joe Louis (and, no actor he, but what does it matter -- it's JOE LOUIS!) made a better *fictional* film about his own life than his memorializers did in this ostensibly non-fiction film. All the insights into Louis' personal life that were missing in the bio-pic -- the Alabama beginnings, the smug over-confidence and breaking of training that led to the loss of the first Schmeling fight, the wife troubles, the emotional reliance on his mother and on his trainer -- all that and more is in "Spirit of Youth" -- PLUS the latter gives us a comic side-kick in the form of none other than the great comedian Mantan Moreland. Yes, "Spirit of Youth" is a fiction, and a light-hearted one for much of the way, and, yes, Joe Louis was not a professional actor in any way, shape, manner, or form, but the fiction in "Spirit of Youth" is in some ways based more closely on fact -- and certainly bears more emotional truth about Joe Louis -- than "The Joe Louis Story" does. Also, it features some great fight scenes with Louis playing the role of a fighter -- that is, staged fights that show him up close and personal the way the old newsreel footage in "The Joe Louis Story" cannot do. My advice is to rent or buy them both (they are both available for a low public-domain price) and watch them back-to-back, "Spiit of Youth" first, followed by "The Joe Louis Story." You'll be glad you did.

Heavyweight contender Coley Wallace who looked and sounded exactly like Joe Louis, tried his limited best in his movie debut. Sadly, a cheap and clearly quickly made film, it really lacks the knockout punch to make this a great or even good movie. However, any fan of Joe Louis will find this entertaining enough, but that is about it.On a side note, Wallace defeated Rocky Marciano in an amateur boxing match and Marciano knocked out Louis in a professional fight.

There is not much to recommend about this film. It is a standard issue biopic saddled with inept editing that makes the pace really lag and a screenplay that is nothing but flat undramatic exposition. It is only worth checking out because about 35 minutes are the film are actual Joe Louis fights-including his fight with James J. Bradrock, aka Cinderella Man. Even there the filmmakers decided to try to splice created footage in with the archival material, which doesn't work and distracts from the value of the archival footage. You must be a hardcore boxing or boxing movie fan to get anything from this.

Why is it that a film production company and its supposed professionals undertake a project that would seem sufficiently elastic to really emerge as a significant exponent of its subject-matter...only to become a pale facsimilie, causing its knowledgeable audience to feel slighted?

This was the case with the shouldn't-have-been low-budget "Joe Louis Story."

After Rocky Marciano one-and-for-all ended Joe Louis' memorable career, with that devastating TKO at Madison Square Garden that October night in 1951, everyone---not just fight fans---realized that a great sports era in this country had ended. Even non-liberal Americans reluctantly understood Joe Louis' significant impact not only in sports but on society.

A decade before Jackie Robinson, there was Louis. Joe not only had to win his battles inside the ring, but---in a struggle to win-over White fans---he had to remove much of the residue tarnish from the (1908-1915) reign of the first Black heavyweight champion, the talented but unsavory Jack Johnson.

Thus, when officials of the Chrysler Company, shortly after Louis' final fight, chose to do a film about the fighter's life/career, there was immense material at-hand.

Rather than utilize sufficient funds and really produce a true feature film---covering the story's multi-dimension potential---officials instead chose to go the cheap, shallow route. That's truly unfortunate because both Louis and his impact deserved so much more.

The biggest problem with the movie is that it sugar-coats the circumstances Louis faced, in-and-out of the ring. It shows him coming from a strong, middle-class Detroit neighborhood. He certainly did not come from this type of affluency.

When Black business leaders, John Roxborough and Julian Black, assumed roles as Louis' mentors/financial backers, much of their motivation was financial. They saw his ring potential and, despite their own economic status, wanted to ride his coat-tails to greater fortune.

This was not addressed in the film. Neither was the combination of prejudice and attempted mob-influence Louis encountered.

Few of Louis' early fights were shown/depicted, though clips from his key early bouts with Primo Carnera and Max Baer were shown.

When people think of Louis' opponents, two immediately come to mind: Max Schmeling and Billy Conn. The film discusses, and offers clips from, the Schmeling fights but virtually ignores the Conn bouts. Very brief mention is made of the anti-climatic second Conn fight; but it was the classic first fight that should have been developed and shown. Had light-heavyweight Conn---a huge underdog to a vintage Louis---survived the 13th round, and won either the 14th or 15th, he would have taken Louis' title.

There should have been much more continuity shown as Louis' career is presented. More clips from his title defenses would have been excellent---and necessary---bridges as we relived Louis' great career. He came within an eyelash of losing his Dec. 5, 1947, defense against Jersey Joe Walcott. Then, six months later, he made his final defense with a KO of Jersey Joe.

There were, however, a few positives. Coley Wallace facially resembled a young Louis so much that it was almost eerie. And Wallace, who had a brief, undistinguished professional career during the late-1940's and early '50's, of course accurately handled the up-close training and fighting scenes. Ironically, Wallace also is remembered for having been the last man to beat Marciano---if he actually did. Though all accounts say that Wallace was given a gift three-round decision of Marciano in their early-1948 amateur bout, he did win the official decision. Wallace was smart enough not to fight Rocky when both were pros.

Strong character performances were given by James Edwards, as Jack Blackburn, Louis' trainer and close friend; Paul Stewart, as a sportswriter and Louis supporter; John Marley, as Mannie Seamon, a Louis latter-career trainer; and Hilda Sims, as Joe's lonely, increasingly nagging, wife Marva.

The few clips of Louis' bouts add a touch of realism to the program.

This film should have been a major undertaking. It comes-off as a small-letter production when it should have been in all-caps.