Champ for a Day (1953)

A lot of the motivational issues with the two lead characters in this one revolves around two characters who are no-shows.

An up-and-coming heavyweight fighter, George Wilson (Alex Nicol)arrives in Vulcan City, a small mid-western town over-run by racketeers, to fight a heavily-favored Frankie Sebastian (Johnny Polan). George arrives but his manager Dolan is nowhere to be found. But Ma (Hope Emerson) and Pa Karlsen (Charles Winninger), owners of Karlsen's Kozy Kottages motel and restaurant take him under their wing. He meets Miss Gormley (Audrey Totter) who is also there to meet the no-show manager who is blackmailing her no-show brother. Another resident of the Kozy Kottages is Calhoun (Richard Wessel), a beefy, officious motorcycle Kop whose contributions aren't enough to justify his upgraded Richard-instead-of-Dick billing name.

Dolan still hasn't arrived by the date of the fight but, to the surprise of sports-promoters Tom Healy (Barry Kelley) and Dominic Guido (Joseph Wiseman), George shows up and knocks Frankie flatter than a fritter. This wins him the friendship of trainer Al Muntz (Harry Morgan, as Henry Morgan)and the enmity of Willie Foltis (Jesse White), a punchy ex-fighter and a Healy henchman.

This leads George to a fight with "Soldier" Freeman (Hal Baylor), whose manager Scotty Cameron (Grant Withers) has made arrangements for the favored-Freeman to take a dive, so he and Healy and Guido can clean up betting on the underdog.

But Honest George has other plans.