Kirk Douglas Was a Champion on the Silver Screen

Kirk Douglas, who died this week at the age of 103, was a 32-year-old, relatively unknown actor when he was offered the leading role in the movie “Champion,” an adaptation of Ring Lardner’s short story of the same name. At the time, Douglas had another offer on the table that would have guaranteed him more money.

In hindsight, “Champion,” a 1949 release, was Kirk Douglas’s crossroads fight. If the movie bombed – and he would be playing an unlikable character in a low-budget film – it would be back to the drawing board. But if the movie was a hit, and if the professional movie critics were kind to him, he would be able to command a substantially larger “purse” for his next assignment.

The critics were kind to him. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his portrayal of the unscrupulous prizefighter at the center of the film. He didn’t win – the honor went to Broderick Crawford for “All The King’s Men” – but his performance earned him a seven-figure, seven-year contract with Warner Brothers.

“Champion” is the story of Midge Kelly, an up-from-the-gutter kid who goes on to win the world middleweight title. As he climbs the ladder, he steps on people, using them and then casting them aside when they can no longer advance his career. He is, one might say, the Sammy Glick of the pugilistic profession, a reference to the protagonist in Budd Schulberg’s best-selling 1941 novel “What Makes Sammy Run?”

However, Kirk Douglas succeeds in “nuancing” Midge Kelly so that the audience forgives him for his callousness. “Somehow the Douglas portrayal creates sympathetic understanding for a young fellow who got his share of roughing-up from life before he determined to hit back,” said Helen Bower, the film critic for the Detroit Free Press.

Kirk Douglas had no previous boxing experience, but he had wrestled at St. Lawrence University in upstate New York and credited this with being advantageous to him. The fight scenes were orchestrated by former world junior welterweight title-holder Mushy Callahan, Hollywood’s go-to-guy when it came to preparing an actor for a fight scene. Callahan made an appearance in the movie as a referee in an uncredited role.

“Champion” was released two years after “Body and Soul,” another boxing movie in the film noir genre. The New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther swooned over “Body and Soul” which earned John Garfield an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. Crowther thought that the Kirk Douglas vehicle paled alongside it, but he gave the film a generally favorable review: “The scenes in training gymnasiums, managers’ offices and, of course, the big fight rings are strongly atmospheric and physically intense.”

Mark Robson, who directed “Champion,” went on to direct “The Harder They Fall,” the 1956 boxing movie based on Budd Schulberg’s novel that starred Humphrey Bogart in what would be Bogey’s final film role. Kirk Douglas, who was laid to rest on Friday, Feb. 7, went on to become an icon of Hollywood’s Golden Age.

His 1949 “crossroads fight” turned out pretty well.

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