Well-written and well-acted vehicle serves as William Holden's entree to stardom. He was just 21 and is easier to recognize in his opening scene by his voice rather than his boyish looks and longish hair. Regardless of what it took to get him to give this performance, it is one that will be long remembered. Barbara Stanwyck plays the tough cookie who discovers she has a heart of gold, reminiscent of her role later perfected in "Meet John Doe." When asked if she was Adolphe Menjou's girl, Barbara replies "I'm my mother's girl." Great cast of supporting character actors add to enjoyment of a solid production whose best scenes involve family and not the ring. Good camera work, especially of those fight scenes, excellent sets, and great direction make this a surprisingly good night's entertainment. I avoided it for years thinking this was just another fight movie -- it is not -- and am now sorry that I waited.
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Jim Tritten15 April 2002
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PWNYCNY26 July 2005This is a wonderful, compelling, emotionally charged movie, with characters that are both interesting and likable. Of course, the central character of the movie is Joe Bonaparte, played by a young, gifted actor named William Holden. Joe's conflict, between his quest for fame as a prize fighter and his father's wish to become a concert violinist, although seemingly corny and contrived, actually works in this movie. And this can be attributed to the fine acting of all the players - Barbara Stanwyck, Lee J. Cobb, Adolph Menjou, and William Holden - who prove that high quality acting can transform a good script into a great script. One particularly intense scene is when Joe tries to play the violin - and he can't, leaving him devastated in the knowledge that he had squandered a gift and in the process had disappointed his father. This is a movie that is worth the time to watch and to enjoy.
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blanche-228 December 2006Clifford Odets' play about a musician turned boxer was a natural for Hollywood, which has always loved boxing movies. Perhaps subliminally, Odets was inspired by the Fannie Hurst "Humoresque," first made into a film in 1920. When "Golden Boy" was done in 1938 as a production of the Group Theater, John Garfield hoped to play the role of Joe Bonaparte and was disappointed when the lead went instead to Luther Adler, with Garfield relegated to the role of Siggie. Garfield rectified this in 1952 when he played the lead on Broadway and also had his chance to play a boxer in "Body and Soul" and a violinist in "Humoresque." Tony Curtis is another who did the part of Joe as a young actor before going to Hollywood.
There are two ways of casting this role - the Garfield way - the streetwise fighter who happens to be a gifted violinist, or the reverse - the gentle violinist who just happens to be a gifted fighter. The latter is more interesting, as the audience is then able to see how the fight world changes an artistic soul.
Columbia took this route and chose 27-year-old Richard Carlson for the role, but he was appearing on Broadway at the time. After testing nearly everyone, the studio put 21-year-old William Holden in the role. His was a new face and a pretty one - he certainly didn't look like a fighter. A part like this for someone who had two uncredited film appearances had to have been like winning Scarlett O'Hara and just as daunting; were it not been for the help and intervention of Barbara Stanwyck, who played Lorna (originally done on stage by Frances Farmer) Holden would have been fired.
The theme of following your heart, so often explored by Eugene O'Neill, is another overriding theme in this story, with the character of Joe Bonaparte torn between his love for playing the violin and the appeal of making money as a fighter and being somebody. Joe comes from an immigrant family who all live together - seen so often in films from the '30s and '40s -- again, "Humoresque" comes to mind. This immediately dates the film and puts it right into its period. The other thing that dates it is the over the top performance of Lee J. Cobb as Joe's dad. Cobb was in the original play on Broadway but as another character; he would repeat his role as the father in the Garfield production. Undoubtedly this characterization worked better on stage and definitely worked better for a '30s audience.
William Holden gives a tender performance as Joe, an artist at heart who falls for his manager's girlfriend. Like Glenn Ford, he had one of those faces that changed so totally that he isn't even recognizable as William Holden in this film - even his voice is different. He's young, beautiful, with an unlined face and a higher voice. His performance opened up light leading man roles for him. It wasn't until 1950 that he had his second breakthrough film, "Sunset Boulevard" - which vaulted him into superstardom. That William Holden was virile, rugged, and handsome. It's an amazing transformation. Stanwyck is perfect as Lorna Moon - tough, sexy, and a marshmallow underneath. Her chemistry with Holden is excellent. He never forgot how much she helped him, and sent her roses each time she started a new film.
"Golden Boy" was turned into a Broadway musical as well - there's something enduring about the story of a man's struggle to find his true destiny. This is as good an example of that struggle as you'll find anywhere. -
* SPOILERS AHEAD *
Let me just tell you how much I LOVED this movie, by dissecting it. 1) William Holden is GREAT. He looks every bit the violinist and boxer too. Thank director Rouben Mamoulian for this dual success. He also directed Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with Fredric March. Holden's angry young man is highly melodramatic but fiery and totally New York City. 2) Barbara Stanwyck is FABULOUS as Lorna Moon. I'm not the biggest Stanwyck fan, but she captured my heart as the lost-girl-cum-tough-babe. Her torn feelings between benefactor Tom Moody and kindred-spirit Joe Bonaparte is so natural and fluid that you don't mind the underdeveloped sub-plot. 3) Adolphe Menjou, a favorite character actor, bugs out his eyes so many times you'll think he's on a Buster Keaton set ("Don't call me TOM!"), but it FITS. 4) Sam Levene as Siggie and Beatrice Blinn as Duchess are superb. Our society today has deemed such a male-dominated relationship as they have as "sickening." I not only found it to be era-accurate, but also I was sad that more real couples today can't find the harmony that they have. Once you put aside high-minded expectations of relating, you realize that Siggie and Anna love each other very much, and do whatever they can for each other. Siggie makes an honest living, and Anna is obviously happy. Among subtle messages within the movie, this one made me smile. 5) Lee J. Cobb as Mr. Bonaparte is certainly a ham, but what else from a deli owner? Seriously, the schmaltz had flavor. 6) Joseph Calleia as Fuseli is PERFECT. For sheer gusto, check out how Fuseli clears a room with a word, opens doors with a phone call - and all this without ever having a bodyguard or enforcer handy! Calleia brilliantly brings Fuseli's sneaky charm and unspoken muscle to the fore. 7) The character of Mr. Carp was, in my opinion, a grand scheme by playwright Odets. The socialist thread: the trouble in Europe, reference to Schopenhauer, even Fuseli's communist tactics - these overt and many subvert happenings kept the dance of 1930's America alive. Immigrants, gangsters, post-Depression attitudes, World War 2 brewing. Priceless! 8) The boxing match: beyond the realistic two rounds we see is the shocker: death. Then, also, we have the savagery of the crowd, shown better than perhaps in any other fight film. Finally, Chocolate's father giving his tear-filled mini-sermon with Karl Freund's camerawork all over it. Beautiful. 9) The ending: the movie comes to a swift halt after all this, and it's abruptness shook me. So many unanswered questions. But maybe that's the point. 10) One other note: check out Stanwyck's tears FLYING while she and Holden are on the Palisades! I give it a 9.5-10. -
Bunuel197629 January 2009Notable for being William Holden's debut (he was just 21 and looks almost like a schoolboy!), this dated melodrama was adapted from a popular play by Clifford Odets dealing with a young man conflicted about which path to take in his life: a respected artistic career playing the violin and the more alluring celebrity (which also reaps instant monetary rewards) as a prizefighter. His Italian immigrant father (Lee J. Cobb, whose mannered performance has been especially criticized) obviously wants the boy to follow his musical instincts, but the pull of the ring is too great more so because through it he meets and falls for Barbara Stanwyck, actually his manager (Adolphe Menjou)'s fiancée. Though initially acting under the latter's instructions, she eventually tries to dissuade him from fighting, particularly when gangster Joseph Calleia (another fine showcase for the Maltese character actor) takes Holden under his wing. The climax sees the hero winning the championship bout but at the cost of his black opponent's life and his own left hand; with the help of Stanwyck (realizing she really loves the boxer, Menjou relinquishes her) the "Golden Boy" stands up to his new boss interestingly, Calleia lets him off rather too easily here when compared to similar films of later vintage! The film is pretty good (with equally solid support from Sam Levene as Holden's struggling cab driver brother-in-law) though betraying its stage origins by relegating the boxing matches to only a brief montage until the not very imaginatively handled finale; in hindsight, it's curious to find this cinematically lacking given the involvement of Mamoulian and his reputation as one of the most creative directors of the early Talkie era!
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bkoganbing28 March 2007The acclaimed play by Clifford Odets, Golden Boy, ran for 250 performances during the 1937-1938 season on Broadway and as Columbia had now pulled itself into the big leagues of studios in Hollywood, Harry Cohn was able to bid for this much heralded property right up there with Mayer, Zanuck, and Zukor.
The problem was that the one guy who could have played it best, John Garfield, was over at another studio. Garfield was in the original cast on Broadway, but in the role of the brother-in-law Siggie that Sam Levene plays here. Eventually however Garfield did play the title role in a revival on Broadway in 1952, it was the last thing he did.
When I lived in New York, I saw a revival of Clifford Odets's Awake and Sing on stage and the left wing nostrums of the day were dated in the Reagan years of the Eighties. Golden Boy is similarly dated. Yet the performances in the film still hold up to some degree.
When Harry Cohn couldn't get Tyrone Power loaned out from 20th Century Fox, he decided to go for an unknown. Director Rouben Mamoulian while testing actresses for the sister part that eventually went to Bernice Blinn, he spotted a young actor who had just done two tiny bit parts in Paramount features feeding lines to the actress whose test it was. Mamoulian persuaded Cohn to call off the search and William Holden's career was launched.
It's legendary now how Barbara Stanwyck worked and rehearsed with Holden endlessly to make sure he scored a success in his feature film debut. Holden paid a heartfelt tribute to her at an Oscar ceremony and when she got her Lifetime Achievement Oscar she dedicated it to him.
It's legendarily unselfish of Stanwyck to do what she did in a town and industry where egos are gargantuan. Unselfish, but also practical. She knew that if he flopped in the lead the film would have gone down the toilet and it wouldn't do her career any good.
The only player from the original cast on Broadway to come to Hollywood was Lee J. Cobb. And not in the part he played on Broadway, on Broadway he was the neighbor Mr. Carp, in the film he's made up to be older as Cobb often was as Bill Holden's father. This set a pattern in his career.
Two other performances of note are Adolphe Menjou as Holden's manager and Joseph Calleia as the gangster Fusselli who buys into Holden's contract.
This story of a Depression kid who had a choice between a career in the ring and a career playing the violin had to be heavily rewritten for the screen. The adulterous relationship between the married Menjou whose wife we never see and Stanwyck was barely mentioned. And Stanwyck's own character was cleaned up quite a bit, in the original play she's more of a tramp than here.
My guess is that Golden Boy would have to be heavily rewritten if it were updated for today. The critical success, but financial failure of Ron Howard's Cinderella Man which was a true story of a heavyweight champion in the Depression found no audience today.
Though it's dated badly, the sincerity of the performances do come through and it's easy to see why William Holden became the star he was. -
mik-1912 January 2006"They are good for only one thing now - slugging!", Joe Bonaparte says with self-disgust, looking down at his broken hands after a middleweight prize fight at Madison Sqare Garden.
Joe had the option to be a great classical violinist, but the girl he was in love with wet his appetite for the quick buck and the American dream. "It's a big city, little people don't stand a chance", says Lorna, egging him up, playing up to his male ego. "Money's the answer". And the poor Italian immigrant kid grabs the bait, hangs up the violin and sells out.
'Golden Boy' is a piece of vintage Americana that is a bit hard to take today. Clifford Odets' controversial play was openly socialist and crammed with sudden, badly integrated political insights about "competetive civilization" and "a man hits his wife, and it's the first step towards fascism". It is all about the flip side of the American dream and gets a bit heavy-handed at times.
Lee J. Cobb is almost unbearably schmaltzy as the all-embracing, tearful Italian Papa, whereas Adolphe Menjou balances his performance carefully as the basically benign boxing promoter whose mistress is Lorna, Joe's chosen one, "just a dame from Newark" as she presents herself.
Barbara Stanwyck is more or less going through the motions as the hard-as-nails Lorna, and the real star of the picture is 21 year old newcomer William Holden, impossibly handsome and hunky, starting out with perfectly tousled curly hair. His performance is as yet immature and unfinished, but he has his moments and makes up for a shaky ride with loads of charisma, and he more than holds his own in the climactic title fight at the Garden, playing against the Chocolate Drop, "the pride of Harlem" in this race-segregated boxing haven.
'Golden Boy' is not, though, one of director Mamoulian's happier efforts. It is far too maudlin to look like anything Mamoulian ever did, it is not like him to lay it on this thick. It has none of the quirks or edge from 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde' among others, but it is lushly, richly orchestrated in the vein of 19th century European music. -
allidesire17 January 2002While 1939 has been properly established as a year of many exceptional films of the American cinema, my favorite actor, Miss Barbara Stanwyck, starred in two: The DeMille epic UNION PACIFIC, and this Clifford Odets' play-turned-movie, GOLDEN BOY. While this film is usually recognized as the one that made William Holden a star, equally famous is the story of how he would have been fired from the film during production had it not been for veteran Stanwyck sticking up for him, insisting that they give him a chance, and then helping him to be a success. There were no shortages of established leading men waiting in the wings for this coveted role, so Barbara's unselfish act forged a life-long relationship between them for which Holden thanked her with a gift of roses each year on the anniversary of the film's opening. In one review, Richard Corliss writes, "...Stanwyck godmothered the young William Holden to stardom and earned his lifelong devotion." I'm sure this real life teacher/student relationship is also mirrored in the actual drama that unfolds on the screen. In spite of their difference in age, however, it's not as vast as the Holden/Swanson relationship in SUNSET BOULEVARD, and the chemistry on Golden Boy is more evenly matched and more appealing. Furthermore, the supporting cast of Aldophe Menjou, as the boxing manager, Lee J. Cobb as Holden's dad, and Sam Levene as Holden's brother-in-law is so tightly woven that the movie has all the charm and intensity of the Broadway play on which it is based. A memorable line that Stanwyck delivers when she is luring the golden violin prodigy from practicing his scales to make some extra dough on the side as a prizefighter is, "...you take a chance the day you are born, so why stop now?" When he doesn't at first take the bait, watch out for the dated line, "I'll see you in 1966 when, by then, you may have become somebody..." Of course, thanks to Barbara, it happened in 1939. This is an extremely satisfying film suitable for the whole family.
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rmax3048231 March 2009Twenty-year-old William Holden is on his way to becoming a violin virtuoso when he is ensnared by circumstances into becoming a prize fighter good enough to work his way to "the crown". (We should all have such trouble.) On one side are Holden's father, Lee J. Cobb as the world's least probable old Italian, his sister Anna and his brother-in-law Siggie, Sam Levene. The old man springs for an expensive violin, with which he hopes his golden boy will work his way into an honorable profession.
On the other side are Adolph Menjou, the manager who discovers Holden's skill with the gloves, Menjou's girl, Barbara Stanwyck, and assorted underlings including Edward Brophy. They see a boxing ring in Holden's future, and theirs as well. Attracted by Holden's increasing popularity, the gangster Edward Calleia as Fuseli, which I thought was a kind of spiral pasta, works his way into the arrangement and increases the corruption quotient.
What's a golden boy to do? Should he give up Stanwyck, who is urging him to fight, in order to retain his father's respect? Should he go for broke and fight his way to the top and make a million bucks and get Stanwyck and to hell with the family? In a kind of Capra-esquire twist, Stanwyck is under orders from Menjou to pretend she is attracted to Holden only if he fights. But after a visit to Holden's home, she finds she's truly loves him. He's just a naive kid and trusts her, and just about everyone else. It's understandable that the visit to Holden's family should prompt her to change her mind. Like all peasant families everywhere, in Hollywood, the Bonapartes are full of passion and happiness. They have monumental feasts and imbibe freely. They love to sing and dance, and they have strong family bonds and never betray one another. It takes real tragedy to dampen their spirits, and then they make no show of hiding their emotions.
If there were a contest to see who was the better vaudeville Italian, Lee J. Cobb would have lost out to Chico Marx. William Holden is fresh faced and Midwestern, not an Italian kid from Brooklyn, and his acting is rudimentary. Barbara Stanwyck was no longer a kid and she never looked better or gave a better performance. It's really finely tuned and she's quite appealing as a woman who knows all about the unspeakable features of life and chooses to start over with a genuine mate.
Rouben Mamoulian's direction is sometimes clever. In one scene he has Holden playing the violin in the foreground and through the angle of his arm we see Stanwyck staring at him with growing admiration. In the boxing scenes, though, we see nothing but two guys with no grace pounding away at each other, with every blow landing on target. But the star, I suppose, is really Clifford Odetts, who wrote the play the movie is based on. The plot isn't unconventional in any way, but the dialog can be startling at times. Calleia: "Are you Tom's girl?" Stanwyck: "I'm my mother's girl." Later, Stanwyk to Holden about Calleia: "Funny seeing you without him. Like seeing a shadow without the man." I can't recall the many others. It's not consistently sharp but it always scintillates at least a little.
I found it kind of enjoyable but probably not worth repeated viewings. -
alfiefamily10 September 2003William Holden became a star as a result of this film, but there is no question that Barbara Stanwyck is the real star of this picture. She gives a performance that is beautifully layered and Her performance is nothing short of marvelous (My favorite line is when she says, "I'm my mother's girl"). And those beautiful shoulders!
Everyone knows the story of the boy who is torn between a life of boxing and music. The screenplay is a product of the times that it was written in. How else can you explain dialogue that glorifies men beating their wives? Or the leftist remarks that are spoken by the Bonaparte's friend, Mr. Carp? A black boxer named "Chocolate"?! Never happen today.
Everyone is great. Lee J. Cobb as an Italian is heartbreaking, even if his accent is laid on a little thick (It's like watching Laurence Olivier in "The Jazz Singer"). Sam Levene is good as the brother-in-law. And Joseph Calleia as Fuseli, is wonderful. When Stanwyck enters Holden's dressing room after the fight, he says, "Out Miss Moon, this ain't no cocktail lounge." Wonderful. I would love to see Pacino ham his way through this role.
But it is Miss Stanwyck who stands out. We can be thankful that she gave Holden his opportunity and fought to keep him. We can be even more grateful for this wonderful performance. -
Clifford Odets play gets the Hollywood-treatment in this drama of a young man having to choose between boxing(low-life profession) and becoming a violinist. The movie introduced the 21 year old William Holden to the public,and he's asked to carry the whole movie on his shoulders and almost makes it.Barbara Stanwyck seems to go through the motions and delivers a less than exciting portrayal.Adolphe Menjou is very good and Lee J. Cobb's Gepetto like Italian papa is a bit over the top.You won't believe he's not yet 30 in this movie.The movie suffers a bit from the melodramatic acting,but it's fun movie to watch anyhow.But don't expect a masterpiece.
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renfield5429 September 1999A great film. A (very) young William Holden "hits" the bulls-eye on this one. And, I always love to see Barbara Stanwyck's hard, street smart "heart of stone" turn to mush. In a story that won't present you with many surprises as it unfolds, this film is held together by many fine performances. It's from that magical time, long ago, when New York City was inhabited by hustlers and gangsters and boxing was king. It was also inhabited by those of strong family values, the ones fighting that constant battle of the "easy" way or the right way. The mainstay, in that era (in film, anyway), was the ultimate triumph of good. Here, it is a joy to behold. The right choices, by both Stanwyck and Holden, seem very apparent to the viewer, but the right choices are rarely the first ones taken.
Eventually, they can be taken...... -
Lejink22 December 2009Overmelodramatic, if still entertaining film from Hollywood's own "golden year" 1939. I'm a sucker for good gritty movies based on the fight game, especially from the 30's and 40's but this Rouben Mamoulian-helmed effort wasn't quite the knockout I'd hoped for.
The story itself is two parts "Body & Soul" to one part "Humoresque" (ironic, considering that both those classics starred John Garfield who played the William Holden title-character in the Broadway run of the play from which the film was adapted) but gets somewhat caught between two stools and is further let down by some poor acting and miscasting, in my opinion.
In its favour, there's another fine performance by the great Barbara Stanwyck in a trademark "awakening conscience" part. William Holden, demonstrates a fine fighter's physique and plenty of athleticism and toughness in the ring but struggles to vary his pitch when in civvies. On the debit side, Lee J Cobb gives us more ham than there is in the whole of Parma as Holden's stereotypical Italian father, Adolphe Menjou seems to be acting in a different romantic-comedy type film entirely while the actor who plays the so-called tough guy gangster conveys about as much threat as the lion in "The Wizard of Oz". Add to all that some over-fruity soundtrack music, an out of place inserted anti-war speech from a minor character and heavily contrived finish, when boxer Joe kills his opponent in the ring,(the unfortunately-named, in these PC times Chocolate Drop and yes I am aware there was contemporary successful real life boxer called Kid Chocolate!), with token patronisation of "po' Negroes" to boot.
There are some nice scenes, particularly when Holden & Stanwyck dare to dream as they look out over the NYC sky-scape and the fight scenes are realistic for the time and obviously not doubled by stunt-players.
On the whole, though, this set-bound movie suffers too much from static action, variable acting and a too incredible story-line to be a champion but it has a certain nostalgic, curiosity value and I wasn't unhappy watching it through. -
There are only really two reasons why I found this film interesting and they have nothing to do with the film itself. 1) Holden is so young. I know he was about 21 when he made this film and he looks it. It's amazing to me how much his looks changed in the 10 or so years between Golden Boy and Sunset Boulevard. I hardly recognized him in Golden Boy. His voice was different and he didn't even look the same. He sort of looks like a younger, less beefy Tony Curtis. In fact Tony Curtis would have been a great Golden Boy if they had made the film in the late 40s instead of the late 30s.
I think another issue with Golden Boy is Holden's inexperience. This film was his first real role and he was having many issues during the production of this film. It was almost to the point where he was going to be replaced. Which brings me to... 2) The other reason I found this film interesting is the behind the scenes story of how Barbara Stanwyck fought for William Holden to remain in the film after the producers wanted to replace him, which began a lifelong friendship between Stanwyck and Holden.
I think the casting of Lee J. Cobb (who was only 7 years older than Holden) as Holden's immigrant father was ridiculous. Of all of the great older character actors that would have been available at the time, they had to makeup a younger person to pretend to be twice their age. It just didn't work for me. And the result was a jaw-droppingly awful performance by Cobb -(like bad on a "Sofia in Godfather III" -level scale, but in a whole different way.). Seriously, Holden owed HIM a bigger debt than Stanwyck- who should've allowed young Bill to bail on this turkey at the first open exit door he saw.
Still, I give it a five mainly because of Stanwyck, always a trooper in whatever film she was in. -
Golden Boy (1939)
There are elements here that really work-Barbara Stanwyck is convincing, for sure, and the whole scenario is good, even if a little trapped by the boxing stigmas (in the movies). The movie is known in part for being William Holden's first big role. He's almost unrecognizable, young and unformed. The problems of the boxer being torn between love and career, or between the good promotor and the gangster, are a problem in a way, but this is 1939 and an early example of what would much later be a cliché. The filming is strong, the pace fast. A weak point is Holden's father, played by Lee J. Cobb, a great secondary actor cast for some reason as an Italian immigrant. He does his best, but something is off about it, and his performance is key to set off his son's turn from being a violinist to being a boxer. Stanwyck, by comparison, fits right into her role moving from one man to another as her mood suits her. The final scenes help make the movie work-and I can't say anything about them here. The final match (against an African-American fighter), is about finding a final truth, and the way it is filmed with close ups of faces in the crowd (black and white) in their frenzies is great, a high point. And this leads to the highly dramatic end, one that even Rocky will draw from later on. Boxing movie fans should see this, for sure, but it also works as a solid if not classic 1939 era drama. -
jrangers197 September 2006As I was watching this movie for the first time on TCM the other night, I kept thinking the actor who played Mr. Bonaparte (Joe's dad) sounded awfully familiar. Imagine how shocked I was when I saw the credits and learned that it was Lee J. Cobb under that heavy makeup and Italian accent. I seemed to recall that he wasn't much older than William Holden, and according to the IMDb listings, he was born in 1911, making him just six years older than his "son," William Holden, who was born in 1917. But the real kicker is that Barbara Stanwyck, who was admittedly supposed to be the "older woman" to Joe, is a whole 11 years older - making her older than her boyfriend's father!! Doesn't it seem odd that the producers would have chosen a 28-year-old actor to play the role of the Italian "Papa" in this movie? Or am I just being picky?
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Joe Bonaparte is a gifted violinist, but poverty bites hard and he tries his hand at the noble art of pugilism, he proves to be a natural and a career at the top beckons, but does he risk damaging his hands and ending his interest in another noble art?
Angst abound as this Rouben Mamoulian adaptation of the Clifford Odets play hits a dramatic spot, whilst simultaneously firmly being only of its time. It hasn't aged well, its dialogue and character portrayals quite simply would be scoffed at now, but this is 1939 and one really has to have the fortitude to appreciate the late 30s sensibilities to enhance the viewing experience.
We follow Joe Bonapart {a wonderful and fresh faced debut from William Holden} as he is torn apart by those closest to him, family pressures, love interests and spurious heavies, all combine to pull him from pillar to post. It makes for a riveting viewing, yet after two thirds of intense character build up I found the film to be something of a let down entering the final round. Those familiar with the stage version of Golden Boy will be aware of a vastly different ending to the one we get on film, and it's a shame that the makers here wasn't brave enough to give what I believe to be the ending the film deserves. Another irritant to me was the performance of Joseph Calleia as Eddie Fuseli, where there should be menace from this gangster type fellow, we instead get over the top spivery that ultimately is way too much.
Still the direction from Mamoulian perfectly frames the main characters, and Barbara Stanwyck adds a touch of class to the proceedings as the duplitious Lorna Moon. Also of note is the score from Victor Young, whilst the production value is very high indeed. Golden Boy is a film I certainly recommend to friends interested in classic cinema, but sadly to me it will always stop short of being a true classic, something I feel that the original ending would possibly have given it. 7/10 -
JoeytheBrit9 July 2007William Holden's first starring role is in a fairly routine boxing drama that is competently made - as you'd expect from the studio system of the 30s - but which shows little in the way of flair or originality. Holden is good, although he's barely recognisable from the rugged leading man he would eventually become, and Stanwyck is at the top of her game as the woman who comes between him and his mentor (Adolphe Menjou). Menjou's character is a bit of a strange bird: multi-layered, but each layer is wafer thin and unformed. Lee J. Cobb, meanwhile is clearly where Joe Dolce got his inspiration from for his annoying hit single Shaddapa Ya Face. Cobb was only 27 when he played his role, 7 years older than Holden, whose father he plays.
The most glaring thing about Golden Boy, though, is how politically incorrect it would be considered today. Cobb's daughter, indignantly defends her husband when Cobb berates him for knocking him about ("He can hit me any time he likes!" she defiantly declares), and Holden finds himself in the ring with a coloured fighter named The Chocolate Drop. -
kenjha3 April 2009In this adaptation of the famous Odets play, a young man must choose between music and boxing. In his star-making role, Holden looks impossibly young, and turns in a surprisingly strong performance, given his inexperience. Stanwyck is quite good in a typical role of a tough broad with a soft heart. She helped Holden overcome his jitters and the two developed a legendary friendship during the filming. Cobb, only seven years older than Holden, is schmaltzy but touching as the latter's father. Levene is wonderful as Holden's brother-in-law. Menjou overacts. Mamoulian is at his best when depicting the family life of the Bonapartes. The fight scenes are brief but effective.
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It would be unfair to review this 1939 movie using todays ways of thinking & writing,
SO I will say I did not mind the over acting by the supporting players---Lee J.Cobb,Sam Levine & the young lady playing Sam Levine's wife.
I also did not mind the sexist & racial overtones in some of the lines. This was the way they spoke in 1939, they did not think that the lines were sexist or racial.
However I did mind the change of the ending.
Cifford Odets wrote a drama with a tragic ending. Lewis Meltzer & three others wrote the screenplay & made the ending a typical Hollywood happy ending. SPOILER ALERT in the play BOTH Joe & Lorna die,, In fact I had thought one did die in the film. This change SPOILED the entire meaning of the play. I cant remember how long ago it was when I last saw this.
William Holden was very good in his first major screen role,(he even looked younger than his 21 years. Barbara Stanwyck is excellent as Lorna, I did not mind too much that she was not as trampish as in the play. Lee J.Cobb plays Joe's father looking 30 years older than his actual 27 years. Adolph Menjou is equally good as the manager Tom Moody.
The play was a dramatic tragedy BUT the resulting film directed by Rouben Mamoulian is an somewhat interesting but well made failure.
Ratings **1/2 (out of 4)71 points (out of 100) IMDb 6 (out of 10_ -
ccthemovieman-131 October 2006I found this to be a pretty solid movie with some interesting characters. It was a shock at first to see William Holden this young. I had known him at that time as an older guy. In this film, he looked about 19 and didn't even have the deep voice I was accustomed to hearing. I didn't Lee J. Cobb, either, who played Holden's father, a Jewish man with a beard. Barbara Stanwyck, meanwhile, played her typical role: tough gal with a soft heart underneath.
Story-wise, there were a couple of holes in it near the end which lowered my rating a tiny bit. No stranger, in a big fight, would be allowed to walk into a fighter's dressing room right before the bout. In fairness, I've seen that in other classic films, too, even to the point of the boxer being in his room totally alone and anyone walking in. I don't think so!!!!
Anyway, outside of those little things, it was a well-done and involving story that got me hooked in from the start. I've watched this twice and enjoyed it both times. Now I am just waiting for a DVD of this. -
Yes! Yes! Everything you've heard is true. It's sexist and indulges in cultural stereotypes. The dialog is corny and hokey. It's been the butt of a thousand parodies about someone with highbrow potential who goes lowbrow and loses their sense of values, in this case a boy who loves to play the violin but becomes a boxer for the money. Just remember it was based on a play by Clifford Odets, the great proletarian playwright of the thirties. His language was always over the top. He wrote at a time when audiences preferred a well-turned phrase to a well-turned ankle. The language didn't have to reflect life as accurately as a mirror as long as it communicated an idea in a way that was unique and memorable. They didn't mind characters that were caricatures of a race or culture, if the characters stood out sharply against the background. In the big fight scene when William Holden as Joe Bonaparte the Golden Boy and James Green as Chocolate Drop slug it out for the slot of middleweight contender, the people ringside, both black and white are all equally consumed by blood lust. It's the brutality of the spectacle that is being held up as a symbol of Bonaparte's willingness to engage in what is repulsive to him in order to get what he thinks he wants, i.e. material gain. The next part is a spoiler. The film has a happy ending with Bonaparte giving up boxing and his association with the rackets and going back to his core values of family, music and love. In the original Odets' play, he gives up boxing but replaces it with another dangerous activity, fast cars, and he dies in a crash. He is no longer able to recapture those lost values and must seek for greater and greater thrills. Odets didn't really concern himself as much with what was good in American society as with what was wrong with the middle-class. The hero dies because he is rotten. He has given up the good but not replaced it with anything worthwhile. Hollywood of course could never countenance anything as nihilistic as that. Their version is the parable of the prodigal son. At least they kept the language. As corny as it is, it's still some of the best wordsmithing in American literature.
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jromanbaker19 March 2023A lot of the time Hollywood altered the ending of a great play, and this one written by Clifford Odets is one of them. Odets led a troubled life, and to a certain extent his plays and screen writing reflected that. Among the translations to the screen are ' The Big Knife, ' ' Clash By Night ' and ' The Country Girl. ' He also wrote the script for ' The Sweet Smell Of Success ' and that is a very great film sour with corruption and despair. So would ' The Golden Boy ' have been if Hollywood had had the guts to leave the proper ending in, and no spoilers but it sugars a hopeless situation needing the audience, no doubt, to walk out of the cinema happy. It was William Holden's first leading role and he puts everything he has into the role, and then some, and his youthful passion as an aspiring violin player is made horribly bitter by the perversity of those who turn him into a star boxer. He goes against his artistic needs to the need for wealth, which he eventually hates, and no spoilers as to the final tragedy in the ring which tears him apart. Barbara Stanwyck is good as the equally troubled woman he loves and the fine Lee J, Cobb plays his father to perfection. A fine film tainted by Hollywood's soiled hands.
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writers_reign25 April 2010Clifford Odets wrote some eleven plays in approximately twenty years, none less than excellent and a couple outstanding. For reasons that elude me only four of them were adapted for the screen (Odets did, of course, work in Hollywood both on adaptations, None But The Lonely Heart, and Originals, The Story On Page One) and more or less in the order they were written. This makes Golden Boy the first. It was the first real success for the Group Theatre, a short-lived co-operative that eventually benefited Hollywood more than Broadway as one by one - Franchot Tone, John Garfield, Elia Kazan, Luther Adler, etc made the trip West. Lee J. Cobb was the only survivor of the Broadway play (Luther Adler played Joe Bonaparte) and is just about the best thing in the film though Barbara Stanwyck - who went on to appear in the next Odets adaptation, Clash By Night, gave him a run for his money. One of Odets' strengths was his dialogue so, predictably, Paramount either cut or emasculated the bulk of it. The slight jarring note is Adolphe Menjou as Tom Moody, Joe's manager. Menjou has no affinity for the role of a boxing manager and even less chemistry with Barbara Stanwyck as Lorna Moon, Moody's 'girl'. Although true to Odets theme of Art versus Commerce they completely sanitise Odets original ending in which Joe and Lorna perish in his sports car. Here Joe is obliged to utter the deathless line 'I've come home, poppa' after killing an opponent in the ring. See it for Cobb and the ninety per cent vintage Odets.
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Igenlode Wordsmith15 December 2008The best efforts of studio, director and actors are, sadly, ultimately sunk by the script.
This is as a glossy a production as you'd expect from Hollywood in that era, with (uncredited) orchestra schmaltz borrowed from composers far and wide to lay over the soundtrack, dramatically poised black and white photography, and carefully dressed sets -- take a look at the sentimental Victorian clutter of the Italian immigrant's parlour, or the litter of linctus bottles in the boxer's dressing-room. The tale of the prize-fighter who makes it into the big time but loses his soul in the process is a familiar one, done elsewhere (try "Body and Soul", 1947) but here trotted through competently. Perhaps the major twist in this version is that the girl is genuinely attached to her middle-aged lover and reluctant to throw him over for Our Hero's boyish charms; an excellent performance by Adolphe Menjou (a piece of astute casting), along with Joseph Calleia, who manages to infuse the character Fuselli with menace despite the fact that he never actually does anything. (I couldn't help feeling that young Bonaparte gets off awfully lightly from that final confrontation, when Fuselli simply slaps him in the face and lets him go!)
Despite what was apparently major surgery work on the original play-script, however, traces of it still show through: the character of Mr Carp, who seems to serve no purpose other than to act as the author's mouthpiece, coming out with political slogans that jar at inappropriate moments. Glutinous sentimentality for the part of the Italian Poppa -- Lee J. Cobb gives it every ounce of sincerity he's got, and the character is still all but impossible to take. The hero himself is largely a cipher swayed this way and that by those around him, and by the end I was frankly hoping that Lorna would go off with the loyal Tom rather than falling for this boorish and rather unlikable boy. Every so often, a character will come out with something so corny that I just can't swallow it, stopping the illusion dead in its tracks. The script rings false. It's a dud, and a preachy dud that ultimately pulls a handsome and well-staged production down with it.
(As a violin-player, I have to say that the musical scenes are well done. Holden handles his instrument with confidence, and looks as if he is really playing in the scenes where we see his technique -- although I noticed that they wisely chickened out of having the character play the harmonics at the end of "Thaïs"! But I'm afraid Bonaparte's future musical career isn't ever going to be a bright one. A broken right hand, for bowing, he might overcome; with a broken left hand he'll never make professional standard again. My playing has never been as good again since I broke my left wrist, and that didn't even affect the fingers...)