The presence of a trio of some of the best Warner Brothers players from the studio era makes Kid Galahad worth watching. You cannot possibly go wrong in a film that has Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis, and Humphrey Bogart.
After a fight where Robinson's fighter is knocked out by Bogart's pugilist, Robinson throws a party any way. Robinson's palooka lost because he didn't listen to instructions. Bogey and his fighter William Haade come in anyway. During the festivities, William Haade gets fresh with Robinson's girl, Bette Davis, and young bellhop Wayne Morris flattens him with one punch. Robinson thinks he's found a new heavyweight.
I doubt there have been too many people more innocent portrayed on the screen than Wayne Morris in this film. The gawky country kid who comes off like a young Jimmy Stewart with a little more meat on his bones manages to get both Davis and Robinson's kid sister Jane Bryan interested in him. That ticks off Robinson considerably and he starts looking at Morris in a new and bad light.
Of course the presence of those three Hollywood legends makes Kid Galahad watchable. Davis with little to work with turns in a good performance as the decent girl friend of Robinson who while she's been around the track a few times, has a good heart. Jane Bryan is appealing herself as the sister. She retired early from the screen when she married Justin Dart the founder of Rexall Drugs. Later on Dart became an early backer of another Warner Brother contract player named Ronald Reagan when he opted for politics. Bryan by then a fashionable society hostess was also a big backer of the Gipper.
Robinson is good, his fanatical interest in protecting his sister is not as bad as Paul Muni with Ann Dvorak in Scarface, but pretty close without crossing over into incest. Humphrey Bogart is also fine as the mobbed up manager, a type all to familiar in boxing.
Kid Galahad is dated, you couldn't have someone today as innocent as Wayne Morris is portrayed on the screen, the film would be laughed at. But those were more innocent times.
After a fight where Robinson's fighter is knocked out by Bogart's pugilist, Robinson throws a party any way. Robinson's palooka lost because he didn't listen to instructions. Bogey and his fighter William Haade come in anyway. During the festivities, William Haade gets fresh with Robinson's girl, Bette Davis, and young bellhop Wayne Morris flattens him with one punch. Robinson thinks he's found a new heavyweight.
I doubt there have been too many people more innocent portrayed on the screen than Wayne Morris in this film. The gawky country kid who comes off like a young Jimmy Stewart with a little more meat on his bones manages to get both Davis and Robinson's kid sister Jane Bryan interested in him. That ticks off Robinson considerably and he starts looking at Morris in a new and bad light.
Of course the presence of those three Hollywood legends makes Kid Galahad watchable. Davis with little to work with turns in a good performance as the decent girl friend of Robinson who while she's been around the track a few times, has a good heart. Jane Bryan is appealing herself as the sister. She retired early from the screen when she married Justin Dart the founder of Rexall Drugs. Later on Dart became an early backer of another Warner Brother contract player named Ronald Reagan when he opted for politics. Bryan by then a fashionable society hostess was also a big backer of the Gipper.
Robinson is good, his fanatical interest in protecting his sister is not as bad as Paul Muni with Ann Dvorak in Scarface, but pretty close without crossing over into incest. Humphrey Bogart is also fine as the mobbed up manager, a type all to familiar in boxing.
Kid Galahad is dated, you couldn't have someone today as innocent as Wayne Morris is portrayed on the screen, the film would be laughed at. But those were more innocent times.