User reviews

Henry Armstrong, in the first of three films he made, stars as a boxer on the way to a championship, but he is as uncharismatic as you can imagine and a wooden actor to boot. I'm sure the 1939 audiences came only to see the fight footage, since Armstrong held three world championships in 1938 (in the featherweight, lightweight and welterweight divisions) and still is the only boxer to have done that all at the same time. But the boxing footage was disappointing too. You could see he and his opponent were holding back, and when he is knocked down, it's by a very light tap. These items were partially offset by some very good performances by Canada Lee as his trainer and Willie Bryant as the heavy trying to get Armstrong to lose the big fight. And Mae Johnson is terrific as the vamp Bryant gets to help him - a first class acting job. I also enjoyed Hamtree Harrington, who provides the little comedy there is in the movie.

This is one of the best of Black Cinema, proving Blacks were capable of portraying roles and people from all walks of life, not just black people or stereotypes of blacks to tell a story. Something that Blacks in Hollywood should be doing but if Blacks want that they will have to make their own movies but today Blacks are able to be movie stars, rich and famous but yet still in stereotypical roles but too blind to see. Anyways, the cast in a A plus cast featuring popular actors, actresses, dancers and bandleaders, one of the most beautiful actresses of screen, Francine Everett, one of the few to earn the title movie star, plays the part of sweet Fannie Singleton who is Henry's beau and unfortunately is not very encouraging but turns a leaf towards the end and learns you have to stand by your man or someone else will, and that someone else is Jerry Jordan played Mae Johnson, a popular actress who is perfect as the femme fatale trying to ruin Henry's career but makes up for her wrong, her partner in crime is Handsome, charming Willie Bryant a childhood friend of Henry's who befriending him again to ruin him, veteran actors Canada Lee, Lionel Monogas, George Wiltshire and Hilda Offley adds their years of experience to the movies. Hamtree Harrington is very funny and able to be funny without being a buffoon like Hollywood were making of Stepin Fetchit. Francine Everett, was one of the best, most familiar faces of Black Cinema as it is now called, back than it was called, All Black Cast or Race Film movies. Francine was able to play any type of role, naturally and effectively. Hollywood would only offer Francine stereotypical roles which she thought weren't deserving to her talent so that's why she didn't have much success there so within Black Cinema she was willing to play various parts and have her talent exploited positively. Francine was loved as much by black audiences as Lena Horne and Dorothy Dandridge was but just because only cross-overs and ones who were approving to whites are only remembered which is wrong to overlook blacks who stayed stars within their race and helped in the enhancement of blacks in movies by making their own and who done more for the race but are hardly ever mentioned in Black history achievements so I guess whites determined who's remembered or important in Black history. Francine truly was the greatest, whether Hollywood or Black Cinema, who cares, movies are movies, Black Cinema provided Francine the opportunities to be a versatile actress unlike Hollywood than and now. Francine truly deserves more recognition and any movies she was in was always watchable. No actress was ever as charming, beautiful, vivacious and lively as Francine then and now. You sure will enjoy this movie, especially the musical number and nightclub scenes. If you want to see what Blacks were really like back then and why Blacks were considered the greatest entertainers in the 1930s and 1940's, watch this movie and other Black Cinema films which will show why whites couldn't stay out of Harlem than. This movie, among others, provide a very different portrayals of Blacks than Hollywood, no homely, dumb, stereotypical types but very good-looking, well-dressed, well-spoken Blacks just like whites, they prove they are human beings, playing their parts without a label or stereotype that anyone would be proud of.

Clearly, any film starring a sports hero is designed to exploit the fame and celebrity of that athlete. If we expect a convincing performance by an amateur (actor) among professionals, we are perhaps asking for too much - even if, ironically, the actor is playing himself, or something close to it. The once-in-a-century exception was, of course, Muhammad Ali - a natural performer in any venue.

This picture, an obviously low-budget production without major studio backing, lets us see the legendary Henry Armstrong in the most hackneyed of boxing stories. Yet he does not embarrass himself, and the picture has genuine entertainment value. The story plays "around" him, with some effective acting by several members of the cast, moments of comedy consistent with the tone of the story, and even two musical numbers. Especially moving is the sequence late in the picture which repeatedly cuts from the boxing arena to the church, and back.

Be prepared to make allowances, and you are likely to enjoy this film. It compares very favorably to a similar picture made a year earlier, "Spirit of Youth," starring Joe Louis.