Gentleman Jim is a 1943 film starring Errol Flynn as heavyweight boxing champion James J. Corbett. The supporting cast includes Alexis Smith, Jack Carson, Alan Hale, William Frawley, and Ward Bond. The movie was based upon Corbett's autobiography, The Roar of the Crowd, and directed by Raoul Walsh.
Raoul Walsh's Gentleman Jim is a great, boisterous gift box of a movie, a high-spirited biopic of late-19th-century prizefighter and father of 'modern' boxing James J. Corbett, as played by Errol Flynn. The setting is San Francisco in the Gay 1890s, with Flynn/Corbett starting out as a brash, egotistical bank teller fast with his mouth and light on his feet. Given a chance to crash high society, he becomes a pugilist for the amusement of the nabobs, then sets out on a boxing career that will bring him glove-to-glove with the Great John L. Sullivan, portrayed with Walshian gusto by Ward Bond.
Gentleman Jim is fragrant with period atmosphere, exhilarating in its feeling for space and back-slapping human contact, and so big-hearted and exuberant that it finally invites the audience right into the film. Alexis Smith--as a socialite who ribs Corbett mercilessly--and Flynn conduct a strikingly egalitarian mating duel. The supporting cast includes Jack Carson, frequent Flynn co-star Alan Hale (as Flynn's FATHER!), Ward Bond (unforgettable as the aging John L. Sullivan), and the especially grumpy William Frawley, and the whirlwind montages are by future director Don Siegel. This is great fun--and a masterpiece to boot. “Gentleman Jim" was one of Flynn's own personal favorites, is a funny, light-hearted biopic of boxer James J. Corbett.
Note: It is widely believed Errol Flynn suffered a mild heart attack while making this movie, as he details in his 'autobiography' "My Wicked, Wicked Ways". The book plays footloose & fancy-free with his past, and was published shortly after his death in 1959. After a lifetime of boozing, smoking, and other life-shortening habits - it was a massive heart attack that would eventually take his life, at the age of 50.
Because boxing is a considered an illegal and disreputable enterprise in 1880's San Francisco, wealthy and influential members of the prestigious Olympic Club vow to make the sport a "gentlemanly" one. They sponsor a brash, extroverted young bank clerk named Jim Corbett, who quickly becomes an accomplished fighter under the new Marquis of Queensbury Rules. Despite his success, the young Irish-American's social pretensions and boastful manner soon estrange him from his benefactors, who plot to give their conceited former protege a well-deserved comeuppance. Despite this, his dazzlingly innovative footwork helps him to beat a succession of bigger and stronger men, and he finally finds himself fighting for the world's championship against his childhood idol, John L. Sullivan. Written by Gabe Taverney (duke1029@aol.com)
The biography of famed boxer James J. "Gentleman Jim" Corbett, the colorful Irish-American fighter who became the first heavyweight champion of the world under the new Marquis of Queensberry rules. Written by Jim Beaver
