When The Muses Call-Clifford Odets’ Golden Boy –A Film Review 

 

DVD Review

By Sam Lowell

 

Golden Boy, starring Barbara Stanwyck, William Holden, Lee J. Cobb, Adolph Menjou, a film adaptation of a play by Clifford Odets, 1939

 

One is always in a certain amount of trouble when one is forced to repeat oneself but once again, but for the fifth straight time, I am reviewing a film that is centered in New York City. I am currently on a self-imposed trek of reviewing old time black and white films from the 1930s through the 1950s, the golden age of black and white films and quite by accident have ordered up a bunch of films from that period. This fifth one, the film adaptation of Clifford Odets Golden Boy, might be, no, is the best one of the lot. The others included two Gary Cooper vehicles- the down and out hobo ready to die to atone for humankind’s sins during the Great Depression Meet John Doe and the new found wealth redistribution of that wealth Mr. Deeds Goes To Town, Barbara Stanwyck in the ups and downs of Mayfair swell West Side life melodrama East Side, West Side, and star-struck naïve small town wannabe actress Katharine Hepburn in Morning Glory. All of these used New York City as natural background for the class struggle, a downward look at big city life, an upward look at the upper crust and of course the key role then of Broadway in the cultural life of the city but Golden Boy gets to the heart, the grit of the city for those denizens who are stuck near the bottom of the pile but want to get out form that “from hunger” fate the mass of humanity is bound to face.     

As usual here is a little thumbnail sketch to give the reader the “skinny” of my take on this film. Good-looking Joe, Joe Bonaparte to let you know you are dealing with the ethnic life of New York City right off but also with a name like Bonaparte that this was a guy meant to go places, played by a young William Holden (last seen in this space floating head down in Norma Desmond’s swimming pool in Sunset Boulevard)  had a big soul-hole creating conflict between his love of music, of the violin, and his overweening desire to make dough, to take a big slice out of that American dream pie by becoming a professional boxer. Strange combination agreed since usually the two don’t mesh. And in the end they won’t here either but that was not apparent to Joe starting out. Joe was flat out tired of being laughed at for his violin virtuosity with great but no dough hands so being a pretty good-sized  middleweight who could handle himself he figured to put his hands to use another way. Right there you knew that there would be a conflict but like I said Joe was seriously “from hunger” in those days so he was ready to bust out. Bust out despite his grocer father’s advice to stick with the music at all costs because the muses were calling (said father played by Lee J. Cobb last in this space taking Marlon Brando, a boxer, down a peg in On The Waterfront).

Of course if you wanted to get into the fight game then, now too, you had to work your way up the rankings, had to be properly managed and trained no matter how much fighting spirit, how much “guts” you had if that is the right way to say it. So Joe badgered Tom, Tom Mooney (played by Adolph Menjou last seen in this space, well, last seen here recently as the world weary Broadway who was not world weary enough not to take advantage of the “charms” of young naïve Eva Lovelace played by Katharine Hepburn in a previously-mentioned above New York-centered film), into taking on a rank amateur. Tom was the manager Joe picked despite that fact that he was down on his uppers just at that moment trying to divorce some off-screen gold-digger wife so that he could marry Lorna, played by Barbara Stanwyck last seen in this space as the much-put upon Mayfair swell wife of a playboy financier in East Side, West Side. (Nobody needed any more reference that than that in those days, maybe now too, to know that east and west meant New York City).

Here Lorna was nothing but as she herself said it, “a dame form Newark,” a woman who knew the score, had been up and down in her short sweet life and had latched onto Tom, an older guy, as a life-preserver. But you can bet six, two and even that gratitude in the end will be trumped by that gleam in her eye when hulky Joe goes through his paces. Know it too when early on he takes dead aim at her.        

The fight game though is funny, plenty of guys want a chance at the “brass ring,” want to be champs of the world in that racket. A lot of it is how a fighter is brought along which Tom does to a point getting Joe lots of out of town matches to build up his resume. But the fight game then, probably now too although you don’t hear too much about it, is about guys being “connected,” about guys who know a few other guys who know how to get that good fight that pushed you forward. That is the guy, okay, gangster, Joe eventually hooked up with once he has the “fire in the belly” all great champions need. Or thought he had that fire, especially when Lorna at Tom’s beckon persuaded him that is what he wanted.

Here’s the kicker though, here is what makes this film a cut or two above all the other recently reviewed New York-centric films-Joe was always a bit conflicted about that music he would hear in his head telling him, along with no uncertain real prompting by his not understanding father, the latter was what he was meant for. Lorna as she got more smitten (in her know-all dame from Jersey way) with Joe pushed him that way too. It all got resolved rather tragically after Joe beat up a black fighter, Chocolate Drop, one murderous fight night. A heavy price to pay to learn what you should be in life (and a prima facie case for banning boxing then-and now). If you see one of the five New York-based films see this one. See it for the Holden, Stanwyck and Cobb performances, see it for a look at 1930s gritty New York life and for that tension when you try to walk two different streets in life.