Gentleman Jim

Hollywood’s golden-era stars were as much personalities as they were actors, and the studios used their bigger-than-life personae as a short cut to audience identification. People once went to see whatever their favorite stars were in — the story wasn’t always the draw. That’s why scores of excellent actors found themselves in secondary roles … like, say John Lund or Barry Sullivan … because another ‘almost Clark Gable’ wasn’t needed. If a star was really big, like Bette Davis or Marilyn Monroe, a studio might have an actress or two on the payroll suitable for similar roles, with the thought of keeping the big star in line.

A major heartthrob for the women and a role model for men, Errol Flynn was as super as a star could get. Audiences accepted him as dashing, cultured, mischievous — but he succeed as much when not wearing a period costume or a uniform. He wasn’t an Everyman, ordinary guy type. In Gentleman Jim Flynn found a character that was a perfect fit, that presents him at his most attractive.

Gentleman Jim is the fictionalized story of a boxer who was once a household name; if people today know who James Corbett and John L. Sullivan were, it’s likely because of this movie. It’s a sports movie, but much more than that. Raoul Walsh directs smartly, but not with the stopwatch-intensity of Michael Curtiz. For Errol Flynn the added breathing space is a good thing. It’s hard to find a show with a cast that works together as well as this one.

An almost perfect movie.

The credited screenwriters Horace McCoy and Vincent Lawrence make the story of James Corbett into classic Americana. Lowly but ambitious San Francisco bank teller James Corbett (Errol Flynn) comes from a rambunctious Irish family. Father Pat (Alan Hale) runs a stable and his brothers are longshoremen, but Jim aspires to join the upscale Nob Hill crowd. He flatters the society belle Victoria Ware (Alexis Smith) to crash the fancy Olympic Sports Club and meet Vicki’s millionaire father Buck (Minor Watson). A quick bout with trainer Harry Watson (Rhys Williams), and Jim’s path to prizefighting already seems set. But he’s such an obvious ‘climber’ that the club sets up a bout with a pro, just to put him in his place.

Corbett surprises them all by winning and continuing to win. Victoria wants to see him humbled, not realizing that he’s won her heart as well. Jim picks up a manager (William Frawley) and starts his climb to the top, where awaits the champion of the world, the one and only celebrity showboat John L. Sullivan (Ward Bond).

1942 was a nervous year, but it’s a safe bet that this picture helped audiences forget about the war for a couple of hours. Hollywood regularly tapped the 1890s for quaint stories untroubled by ‘modern’ problems, and the lessons taught here are very reassuring:

1) — America may be divided across economic lines, but there are no limits on those with talent, ambition and a positive spirit. 2) — Wealthy people came from rough beginnings, just like you. 3) — Everybody loves a winner.

Gentleman Jim is one of Errol Flynn’s most entertaining films, and the one that most flatters his public image. James Corbett’s open vanity and  social climbing aren’t typical for manly heroes, but Flynn’s utter charm disarms objections. It’s impressive that the screenplay doesn’t make Corbett look good by surrounding him with enemies — everybody loves and admires Jim, even those that criticize him.

The beautiful Alexis Smith could have been a Gibson Girl. She was frequently ill-cast, and sometimes dismissed as cold, but her elegance is ideal for this role. Victoria Ware has dignity. Her interactions with Corbett retain a period restraint — when Jim steals a kiss at a dance, we take it as a serious faux pas. The writing keeps the Jim-Victoria relationship superficially hostile, when we know a big thaw will eventually arrive. (Odd note — Smith’s gorgeous smiles and smirks consistently make us think of Jodie Foster.)

San Francisco money is all New Money.

Corbett’s devastating good looks help us buy that Victoria would allow herself to be seen in public with a penniless bank teller. In this movie the noveau riche are not the worst snobs — Vicki candidly reports that before her father struck it big, she grew up impoverished in a mining camp. Jim compensates for his humble roots via the Horatio Alger method, by showing that he has good manners. His minor social mistakes are charming, but Jim’s ‘betters’  take exception to his transparent self-promotional habits, like having himself paged in the Club. The millionaires at the Olympia soon want to take their discovery down a peg, but they never really dislike him.

The script works overtime to soften the class/economic divide. Victoria’s almost-fiancé Carlton De Witt (John Loder) is a real gentleman. He remains fair-minded even when Vicki demonstrates her interest in the Irish upstart. The script avoids most of the expected patronizing attitude toward independent women, but not all. Vickie apparently doesn’t realize that she wants a man that’s brash and slightly rough. At the finish she says something about women not thinking out problems, but making decisions by instinct.

“The Corbetts are at it again!”

The knockabout Irish humor is Gentleman Jim’s least appealing aspect, yet it betters some of John Ford’s boozy excesses. Alan Hale and Dorothy Vaughan are sweet and feisty, and Jim’s brothers (Pat Flaherty & James Flavin, uncredited) carry off some very funny roughneck action at the dinner table. Jack Carson is Jim’s pal Walter Lowrie, a role that becomes less important as Jim’s career rises. But it’s telling that Corbett has his own sense of rough loyalty. He turns his back on the sports club when Walter is ejected from a dance (for fairly good reason). Jim may bring a gentleman’s manners to boxing, but the Olympic Club only wants him back when he wins big.

Jim Corbett is outwardly conceited, but the movie insists that he’s a swell guy. We want a hero, and they can’t all be humble galoots like John Wayne and Gary Cooper. It again is a reflection of Errol Flynn’s public image. The rumors that circulated about Flynn’s sexual misdeeds only added to his glory. If Flynn were trying to function in our age of media scrutiny, he’d have to change his act or get set to be scorned, rightly or wrongly, as a serial molester of underaged girls. But we still prefer the vision promoted by Flynn’s movie image — that he really was the gentleman we see on the screen.

The Errol Flynn charm incorporates a major ‘wink at the audience’ factor. Flynn frequently acknowledges that he too thinks he’s a privileged scamp who’s not above being the butt of a joke now and then. In one fight Jim has to climb out of San Francisco Bay, when a foe knocks him clean off a boxing ring set up on a barge. Jim pauses on the ladder to spit out the water he’s swallowed, as might the cartoon character Popeye.  ^*

Organized boxing must have LOVED Gentleman Jim, with its notion that Jim Corbett raised both the sport’s status and ethical standards. Yes, nothing corrupt or dishonest about 20th century boxing, that’s for sure. Although the movie makes no outright patriotic pitch, as does Warners’ Yankee Doodle Dandy of the same year, it certainly presents an American ideal, telling the viewer that, yes, his country is worth fighting for.  Corbett does pose with a flag or two. He’s a genuine Captain America.

It’s a great movie for Ward Bond, who gives John L. Sullivan a broad but honest bombast — this Sullivan loves being a celebrity, and has the illusion that he can’t be beaten. Is the championship bout staged too broadly?  Bond is directed to fight like a drunken moose, and doesn’t seem to have a chance of winning. Did the real Sullivan go down like that?

Other must-mention actors include William Frawley as the crusty, straight-shooting manager who picks up Corbett in Salt Lake City. Rhys Williams brings the boxing cred from his ‘Dai Bando’ character in How Green Was My Valley. The show has only 12 credited actors. The dozens that go unbilled include several with major speaking parts.

“I can lick any man in the world!”

We have a feeling that the movie was a smooth shoot without major problems, but that its makers didn’t know that it would become a long-lasting favorite. Raoul Walsh’s official autobiography could have been ghost-written, as it is mostly a collection of quick celebrity anecdotes. His only specific memory of this show is a complaint about a union protest. Warners’ scenery shop erected a painted backdrop to represent a boxing audience, but the extras held up production until a bigger crowd was hired instead.

Before moving on to the next movie, Walsh simply quotes the text of the post-championship scene, the entire touching exchange between Corbett and the former champ Sullivan. It’s likely Ward Bond’s best film role.

The show doesn’t seem to have been nominated for any awards at all … did the industry have more prestigious films to promote, or did the Academy consider Errol Flynn’s movies to be unworthy of such attention?  Gentleman Jim is as entertaining as anything Hollywood ever produced.