SYNOPSICS
Palooka (1934) is a English movie. Benjamin Stoloff has directed this movie. Jimmy Durante,Lupe Velez,Stuart Erwin,Marjorie Rambeau are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1934. Palooka (1934) is considered one of the best Comedy,Music movie in India and around the world.
Mayme walks out on her husband, Pete Palooka, after he wins the middleweight championship and shows his proclivity for life in the fast lane. She raises son Joe on a farm, by herself. When slippery fight manager Knobby Walsh happens to discover Joe's surprising punching power, he signs him. With current champion Al McSwatt needing an easy opponent, Walsh gets Joe the fight. Palooka steals the championship( and girlfriend Nina Madero) from McSwatt when McSwatt shows up for the fight drunk. Now it's Joe's turn to live in the fast lane, winning fights(that are set ups by Walsh) and drinking hard with vamp Nina. However, when McSwatt and his manager trick Joe into a rematch, it's time to test his real boxing talent.
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Palooka (1934) Reviews
Not a Wise Set-Up
Hilarious pre censorship code boxing farce with Jummy Durante and Stuart Erwin, this homespun Vs city comedy about fixed boxing matches pre dates the Robert Wise classic by 15 years. It's an altogether different tone but with a similar theme: set-up boxing bouts. This one is played for laughs and sappy romance.....the attraction here definitely being the very rude and outright vulgarity of the comedy. Durante is flapping about snozzling his ridiculous comedy style with double meaning retorts and, glamorpuss bra-less nightclub floozie Lupe Velez whilst clearly not wearing underwear beneath her silk gowns has a neckline plunge so low it's a wonder viewers didn't see the map of Tasmania, so to speak. One outright hilarious scene with a French waiter saying "Oui Oui" repeatedly gets yelled at by an exasperated Durante who says "Alfonse! Will you stop wee weeing all over the place". Durante's theme song "Inka Dinka Doo" was obviously a gramophone hit in this era and gets a show spot all to itself. The laughter of Depression viewers in giant old theaters would have lifted the roof on many occasions in this one hour sparring match of one-liners. Everyone gets walloped, even Mother belts Hubby's showgirl pick-up square on the jaw in reel one. Stuart Erwin plays his usual "aww gee" hick character, and James Cagney's lookalike brother (astonishingly so) William, plays Mc Swatt the bad dude boxer also chasing Lupe's hemline. It's a very funny film. The DVD disc available in shops in Oz is OK, more like a DVD rom with some grainy pixilation. Made by Reliance Pictures, who sound like Majestic or Liberty or Chesterfield Pictures, all poverty row outfits of the time, I have a suspicion it is again, a faux Tiffany Production: they folded in 1932 but clearly kept the lot running as various other "name" brands used the facilities. The production values of PALOOKA a very good with the style of decor and design of a Tiffany Production.
a good adaptation of a classic comic strip
"Joe Palooka" was a comic strip created in 1921 by Ham Fisher. It was about a big, good natured prize fighter who didn't like to fight, a defender of the little guy who couldn't defend himself - a white knight. When it was first bought to the screen in 1934 everything worked so well. Stuart Erwin was Joe, a character he had perfected over the years. Jimmie Durante was excellent as Knobby Walsh and was there ever a more beautiful "Anne" than Mary Carlisle. The wonderful character actress Marjorie Rambeau played Joe's mother Mayme and the ever reliable Robert Armstrong was Joe's dad Pete "Goodtime" Palooka Mayme Palooka is sick of her husband's wandering ways - after finding him celebrating his latest boxing win with Trixie (Thelma Todd in a bit part) she takes her son to the country determined not to let him be a boxer. Years later while Joe is delivering eggs, he meets the dynamic Knobby Walsh , who convinces him to become a prize fighter. He is all set to fight McSwatt (William Cagney, looking uncannily like his brother - even with the same speech and mannerisms!!!). After knocking out McSwatt, he inherits McSwatt's girlfriend. Lupe Velez is vibrant as Nina, the vampy cabaret singer. "Poor little bracelet - 'ee looks so lonely by 'eeself" - Nina,angling for another diamond bracelet. After a couple of weeks Joe has gone to the dogs, believing his own publicity. Fighting takes a back seat to toothpaste and mouthwash endorsements. His mother turns up with Anne to see if she can lick him back into shape. After Joe drunkenly challenges McSwatt to a grudge match Knobby doesn't think Joe stands a chance. Then Pete Palooka shows up in time to train him for his big fight. This film is a showcase for Jimmy Durante and his zany brand of comedy. "He's no more a champ than you are an Indian" - "I am an Indian - my name is "Sitting Pretty"" - Knobby's reply to a disgruntled manager. "There's a guy after my own heart" Knobby says, "yeah with a big knife" his offsider replies. He even sings his signature tune, "Inka Dinka Doo". Recommended.
palooka OK
Surprisingly spry given that this film is a premise to film antiquity. I always knew who Jimmy Durante was as a late boomer, but I had never seen him in his prime until this movie. I'm glad I did. He doesn't pretend to be an actor and delivers his lines with a uniform delivery. He's not a very funny man, but a weird oddity as an entertainer, the likes of whom would never ever be taken seriously in today's world of commodified entertainers. What's another point of interest in this film is the appearance of a William Cagney,brother of James....I assume the older of the two. Cagney's first scene when he shows up to his fight pie-eyed is a rather realistic and understated portrayal of drunkenness. There is plenty of drinking in this movie and many people get drunk. What's also an unexpectedly nice touch to this film is that the RELATIONSHIPS ARE BELIEVABLE. Filial conflict peppers this film in that the protagonist has to wrestle with his divided loyalty as cornered by his mother and father. Sometimes the film veers off into unbelievable ridicularity that could never respect the viewer; like when Durante wobbles drunkenly down the street, smashes a showcase window, then enters the display and starts his riinka-dinnk routine on the display's piano The least acquired appreciation for the film is its presence of Runyan-esquire toughs. These actors are CHARACTERS, not celebrities acting in obvious vehicles. Worth a look.
Young inocent rustic becomes boxing champ on a fluke and is temporarilly led astray by preditory cabaret singer. In the end loses title but regains his true love and the simple life.( Slightly richer as his
This film is a great pre production code period piece. It would have been severly censored just a short time later. Durante is unique and defines the word manic. Oddly in his body language he often remind me of Woody Allen and there is some slight physical resembalance as well.Also, speaking of look alikes, we must include James Cagney's brother who plays McSwatt. I noticed this before I realized who the actor was . Were he to do a vocal immitation the effect would have been complete. I wonder if he was ever tempted to do so. After all Bob Crosby in his early recordings was clearly immitating brother Bing. All in all nicely done and well worth watching.
Welcome to a man's sport where the women are tougher than the men.
I'm referring to the audience and the women who love the men in the ring of course. The story starts in the early 1900's when the senior Palooka (Robert Armstrong) was champ and his wife (the ultra tough Marjorie Rambeau) caught him in a compromising position with a prize-fighting groupie (Thelma Todd). Kicking him to the curb, she doesn't expect their infant son to grow up to be in the same profession, but cut 30 years, and young Joe Palooka (Stuart Erwin) does exactly that after an encounter with boxing manager Jimmy Durante during which time he knocks out a current champ. Heading off to the big city without his mother's knowledge, he ends up one of the top fighters, and after beating up a challenger (William Cagney), he wins over Cagney's girl (Lupe Velez) and heads towards the championship much to his mother's chagrin. Between groupies Todd and Velez and fighting wife Rambeau, the women are just as prepared for a fight as the men in their lives. In fact, Rambeau walks out on Armstrong with no words unspoken, even giving her rival something she'll never forget. Velez isn't the tough cookie of the "Mexican Spitfire" series she did years later, but she's certainly more scheming and even gets to perform a nightclub number. Durante gets to perform a drunken version of "Inka Dinka Doo", his signature song. The lovable Louise Beavers plays Rambeau's housekeeper, commenting on country life, "The only rooster I want to see is a black one walking down Lennox Avenue towards me". Fast-moving and witty, this also has several moral lessons about the issues of what it takes to be a prize- fighter. You may confuse William Cagney with a certain other actor with the same last name with good reason.