Golden Boy (1939)

Clifford Odets wrote the stage play for John Garfield, but when Columbia made the movie version, they decided to mount a search for a new face to play the young man torn between a passion for the violin and a career in boxing. William Holden was the actor they found to play Joe Bonaparte, and in that profession his career would be a largely undistinguished one for the next decade, until achieving superstardom with Billy Wilder’s ‘Sunset Blvd’. This film itself seems largely undistinguish throughout much of its running time, but achieves near greatness through the stunning denunciation of the sport that appears near the end of the film, and the performance of Lee J. Cobb as Bonaparte’ father. Despite the schmalzy and overly period seeming conceit of the film, it’s new theater sensibilities makes it interesting as a for shadower of changes that would grip American drama on both the stage and screen in the late 1940's and 50's.