ShangLuda Admirable film.

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

weezeralfalfa Beginning with "They Died with their Boots on" of the previous year, director Raoul Walsh began an association with Errol Flynn that lasted through the war years. "Gentleman Jim" was sandwiched between various WWII films for the duration of the war. After "They Died with their Boots on", Olivia de Havilland was never again Flynn's leading lady. Although a variety of leading ladies filled her shoes over the remainder of Flynn's career, Alexis Smith was the most frequent, costarring in 4 of Flynn's films from 1941-50. She looked especially striking in Technicolor, with her flaming hair and greenish eyes. Unfortunately, the present film was shot in B&W. To see Alexis in a Flynn Technicolor film, checkout the westerns "San Antonio" or "Montana".Although the present film is supposed to be a partial biopic of the pioneer progressive boxer "Gentleman" Jim Corbett, I'm sure Alexis's character is purely fictional. Corbett was married some years before the fight with heavyweight champion J.L. Sullivan. Alexis, as Victoria, keeps popping up in Corbett's life, and secretly puts up the $10,000. needed to stage the Corbett-Sullivan fight, mostly to hopefully see Corbett get beat by Sullivan. Of course, this backfires when Corbett wins. Victoria comes across as very confident of her place in Nob Hill society in San Francisco, but is very condescending toward Corbett, whom she sees as too ambitious and talented as a boxer and as too aggressive in seeking to be an accepted gentleman member of the Olympic Club. She alternatively encourages him toward a romantic relationship, then slaps him down when he oversteps her invisible bounds. Clearly, she's jealous of his overall talent and probably fears he would be too dominating in a relationship with her.Historically, Corbett's fame is based not just on his defeat of Sullivan, but in introducing a new style of boxing, largely imported from England, emphasizing fancy foot work and gloved hands, instead of bare knuckle slugging. Historically, Corbett also was a reasonably good actor, and after his boxing days were over, he made money in vaudeville.Ward Bond does a good job impersonating Sullivan, except that he overdoes the confusion in the ring due to Corbett's quickness and dancing. He is shown being gracious toward Corbett in his defeat. I don't know if this is historically correct. I viewed a 130 min. version of this film on You Tube. The standard version is 144 min. I didn't have the feeling that something important was missing.

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . "In that case, I'm no lady," is the way Jim and Vicky exchange their vows in what has to be one of the better "feel good" film biographies of the 1900s. Since the entire story of GENTLEMAN JIM occurs in the late 1800s, these risqué-sounding disclosures are delivered fully-clothed, in a semi-public place. Errol Flynn portrays the title pugilist as a Devil-may-care risk-taker, like himself. Since the boxing rings of James J. Corbett's time were sized somewhere between Louisville's Churchill Downs and New York City's Central Park, Jim realizes that he has plenty of room to dance around his far heavier opponents for 15, 20, or 65 rounds, ducking 99% of their punches. Then, when the bigger brutes are too weak to box their own shadows, Jim lays them flatter that the Marquess of Queensbury. In a larger sense, GENTLEMAN JIM is carefully constructed to show that nearly all Rich People are lucky hypocrites, generally undeserving of their Wealth, and desperate to kick off anyone trying to follow them up the Ladder of Success. That makes this flick a "Two-Fer."

oscar-35 *Spoiler/plot- Gentleman Jim, 1942. An over confident but talented amateur boxer with innovative new footwork keeps winning fight in the bare-knuckle world of early boxing.*Special Stars- Errol Flynn, Alexis Smith, Jack Carson, Alan Hale, William Frawley, Ward Bond.*Theme- Footwork is sometimes the best defense.*Trivia/location/goofs- B & W. American Warner Brothers Studios. The sailing ship used during the dock-side fight was the same one used during filming of The Sea Hawk (1940). According to "Variety," the real Corbett was "self-effacing" and had a "quiet personality.," which is at odds with the brash extrovert that is pictured in the film. Sullivan reportedly did not like Corbett, and although the film shows Sullivan presenting his championship belt to him, in real life the belt had been hocked by the champion years before. Errol Flynn did all of his own boxing stunts in the film, and although production was shut down for a time after Flynn suffered a mild heart attack, he came back and finished the picture without ever using a double. What for several real heavy-weight wrestlers playing boxers in the film because this was their film starts like Mike Mazurki and two others. Goofs: The night the Corbetts are moving out of their old home to go to the one that Jim had bought for them, the shadow of the boom microphone is clearly seen moving along the left wall as they come down the outside steps.*Emotion- A classic hero film from the best years of the Warner Brothers studio era. trouble is the writers played the history of the roles and time very loosely and at some times the facts were at odds with the film's plot. They never let that ruin a nice patriotic film with larger than life American heroes during the War Effort.*Based on- Loosely based on biography of Jame Corbet, early fighter.

jjnxn-1 This is one of Errol's best films and performances as Gentleman Jim Corbett. He's loose and lively with his movie star charm and charisma in full evidence. He's also well matched with Alexis Smith one of the most undervalued of golden era actresses. They made four films together with this being the best of the bunch. Well directed by Walsh with a quick pace and a great group of the Warners stock company assembled. Ward Bond in particular stands out in a nice scene as John L. Sullivan passing the torch of championship on to the next generation. An excellent example of the studio system working at peak efficiency where all the components fall into place and turn an average script into something more.