Spirit of Youth (1938)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Boxing legend Joe Louis plays a boxer named Joe Thomas in this film, which was clearly meant to be a biography.
SPIRIT OF YOUTH is like a lot of the race pictures from this era. It's got an extremely low-budget and this here causes there to be countless technical issues with the film. At times it's poorly shot and there's no doubt that they were working with very little money as the entire film has a rather rushed and cheap feel to it.
With that said, this here is certainly an entertaining movie on a number of levels with the biggest being the fact that you get to see Louis during his prime. If you're expecting a good performance from him then you'll be disappointed because he's actually rather bad as an actor. He's usually just given one line at most and the reading is downright horrible but I don't think too many people will be that harsh on him. After all, the fun is just getting to see the man himself in the role.
The supporting cast includes a nice performance by Clarence Muse as well as a good supporting bit for Mantan Moreland who pretty much plays the sidekick. Several of the supporting performances are hit and miss but there's nothing here so bad that it's going to take away any entertainment value from the film itself.
As I said, SPIRIT OF YOUTH isn't that pretty to look at but it's a fun film and it's at least nice to see Louis.
