Tennessee Champ (1954)

Name: Tennessee Champ
Genre: Drama
Released: 1954-03-03
Duration: 73 min
Rating: 6.5
Cast: Shelley Winters, Keenan Wynn, Dewey Martin, Earl Holliman, Dave O'Brien

Tennessee Champ (1954), directed by Fred M. Wilcox, starring Shelley Winters and Keenan Wynn.

03/03/1954 BR Drama 1h 13m

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Quiz about this movie

It's fun and thrills when Bombshell Shelley takes on a guy with a Sunday punch!

Synopsis

A boxer desperate for money falls in with a shady promoter.

George J. FolseyCinematography
Fred M. WilcoxDirector
Ben LewisEditing
Sol Baer FieldingProducer

About the film

Tennessee Champ is a 1954 American drama film with strong Christian overtones directed by Fred M. Wilcox and starring Shelley Winters, Keenan Wynn, Dewey Martin, and Charles Bronson

Mounted as a title to fill out double and triple bills (a B-movie), Tennessee Champ was one of several films Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer shot in its pet process of Ansco Color, a ruddy-looking process employed on the same year's Brigadoon.

The film marked a return to Hollywood for star Shelley Winters, who hadn't appeared in a film in almost two years because of her marriage to Vittorio Gassman (which ended in June 1954) and the birth of their child, Vittoria. The lull came just as she seemed to be on an upswing after roles in Winchester '73 (1950), Phone Call from a Stranger (1952), and her breakthrough tragic performance in A Place in the Sun (1951).

Read the full article (2k characters)

Tennessee Champ is a 1954 American drama film with strong Christian overtones directed by Fred M. Wilcox and starring Shelley Winters, Keenan Wynn, Dewey Martin, and Charles Bronson

Plot

Sarah Wurble's husband Willy is the larceny-inclined manager of an illiterate, and very religious boxer from Tennessee named Danny. Gifted with a powerful punch and a nickname that gives the film its title, Danny mistakenly believes he killed a man defending himself in a street brawl, and goes on the lam as a prizefighter.

His Christian convictions turn out to be both a source of inspiration and, ultimately, conflict when Willy urges him to throw a fight (while mistakenly fearing Willy will turn him in on the murder charge if he doesn't). Credulity flies out of the window when Danny discovers the man he is to take on in the fixed fight is actually the man he thought he killed, Sixty Jubel, The "Biloxi Blockbuster." Danny's example of unwavering faith causes Willy to rethink his sinful ways.

Cast

Shelley Winters as Sarah

Keenan Wynn as Willy

Dewey Martin as Danny

Earl Holliman as Happy

Dave O'Brien as Luke MacWade

Charles Bronson as Sixty

Yvette Dugay as Blossom

Frank Richards as J.B. Backett

Jack Kruschen as Andrews

Reception

According to MGM records the film earned $555,000 in the US and Canada and $214,000 elsewhere, making a loss to the studio of $189,000.

References

External links

Tennessee Champ at IMDb

Tennessee Champ at the TCM Movie Database (archived)

Tennessee Champ at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films

Text from Tennessee Champ on Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_Champ

Trivia

It premiered on March 3, 1954, a Wednesday.
It runs 1h13 — short for a feature film.
This film's quiz has 12 questions — enough to play more than once without repeats.