''The Life of Jimmy Dolan'', released in the UK as ''The Kid's Last Fight'', is a 1933 American
pre-Code
Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorshi ...
film starring
Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and
Loretta Young
Loretta Young (born Gretchen Young; January 6, 1913 – August 12, 2000) was an American actress. Starting as a child, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1953. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the fil ...
.
John Wayne
Marion Robert Morrison (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), known professionally as John Wayne and nicknamed The Duke or Duke Wayne, was an American actor who became a popular icon through his starring roles in films made during Hollywood's Gol ...
has a small supporting role as a frightened boxer. The story was based on a 1933 play called "Sucker" by Bertram Millhauser. The film was
remade in 1939 as ''
They Made Me a Criminal
''They Made Me a Criminal'' is a 1939 American crime drama film directed by Busby Berkeley and starring John Garfield, Claude Rains, and The Dead End Kids. It is a remake of the film ''The Life of Jimmy Dolan'' (1933). The film was later featured ...
''.
Plot
Southpaw boxer Jimmy Dolan believes in clean living outside the ring, but blonde vixen Goldie West gets him drunk after a fight. Then when reporter Magee plans to write about Jimmy's behavior, a punch in the face accidentally kills Magee.
With the fighter certain to face charges and possible incarceration, his manager Doc Woods makes off with Jimmy's money and watch. Driving away with Goldie, they end up in a fiery car crash and are killed. Doc's face is unrecognizable, and because he's wearing Jimmy's watch, it is believed the boxer is dead.
A detective, Phlaxer, is unconvinced. The watch is on the wrong wrist for a left-hander. Jimmy, trying to take advantage of the situation and begin a new life, disappears. On the verge of starvation, he comes across a farm run for crippled children by a young woman named Peggy and her aunt. He helps them with the kids as thanks for their hospitality.
A charity match against boxer King Cobra is arranged to raise badly needed money for the farm's mortgage. A photograph of Daugherty makes it obvious to Phlaxer that fugitive Jimmy Dolan is very much alive. He intends to take him into custody, but upon seeing how Jimmy's life has changed for the better, the detective lets him remain free.
Cast
*
Douglas Fairbanks Jr. as Jimmy Dolan
*
Loretta Young
Loretta Young (born Gretchen Young; January 6, 1913 – August 12, 2000) was an American actress. Starting as a child, she had a long and varied career in film from 1917 to 1953. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the fil ...
as Peggy
*
Aline MacMahon
Aline Laveen MacMahon (May 3, 1899 – October 12, 1991) was an American actress. Her Broadway stage career began under producer Edgar Selwyn in ''The Mirage'' during 1920. She made her screen debut in 1931 and worked extensively in film, thea ...
as Auntie (Mrs. Moore)
*
Guy Kibbee
Guy Bridges Kibbee (March 6, 1882 – May 24, 1956) was an American stage and film actor.
Early years
Kibbee was born in El Paso, Texas. His father was editor of the '' El Paso Herald-Post'' newspaper, and Kibbee learned how to set type at age ...
as Phlaxer
*
Lyle Talbot
Lyle Florenz Talbot (born Lisle Henderson, also credited Lysle Talbot; February 8, 1902 – March 2, 1996) was an American stage, screen and television actor. His career in films spanned three decades, from 1931 to 1960, and he performed on ...
as Doc Woods
*
Fifi D'Orsay
Fifi D'Orsay (born Marie-Rose Angelina Yvonne Lussier; April 16, 1904 – December 2, 1983) was a Canadian-American actress and singer.
Early life
Fifi D'Orsay was born Yvonne Lussier in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, to a father who was a postal cl ...
as Budgie
*
Harold Huber
Harold Huber (born Harold Joseph Huberman, December 5, 1909September 29, 1959) was an American actor who appeared on film, radio and television.
Early life
Huber was born in the Bronx to Jewish immigrants from Imperial Russia, who had arrived in ...
as Reggie Newman
*
Shirley Grey
Shirley Grey (born Agnes Zetterstrand; April 11, 1902 – August 12, 1981) was an American actress. She appeared in more than 40 films between 1930 and 1935.
Biography
Born in Naugatuck, Connecticut, Grey was the daughter of E. A Zetterstr ...
as Goldie West ''(uncredited)''
*
George Meeker
George Meeker (March 5, 1904 – August 19, 1984) was an American character film and Broadway actor.
A graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, Meeker made several films such as ''Crime, Inc.'' (1945) and ''A Thief in the Dark'' (1 ...
as Charles Magee ''(uncredited)''
*
John Wayne
Marion Robert Morrison (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), known professionally as John Wayne and nicknamed The Duke or Duke Wayne, was an American actor who became a popular icon through his starring roles in films made during Hollywood's Gol ...
as Boxer
*
Arthur Hohl
Arthur Hohl (May 21, 1889 – March 10, 1964) was an American stage and motion-picture character actor. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and began appearing in films in the early 1920s. He played a great number of villainous or mildly l ...
as Herman Malvin ''(uncredited)''
*
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule Jr.; other pseudonym Mickey Maguire; September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American actor. In a career spanning nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last surviving stars of the ...
as Freckles ''(uncredited)''
*
George Chandler
George Chandler (June 30, 1898 – June 10, 1985) was an American actor who starred in over 140 feature films, usually in smaller supporting roles, and he is perhaps best known for playing the character of Uncle Petrie Martin on the televi ...
as Boxing Handler
See also
*
John Wayne filmography
American actor, director, and producer John Wayne (1907–1979) began working on films as an extra, prop man and stuntman, mainly for the Fox Film Corporation. He frequently worked in minor roles with director John Ford and when Raoul Walsh sugg ...
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Life Of Jimmy Dolan
1933 films
1933 drama films
American drama films
American black-and-white films
American boxing films
Films directed by Archie Mayo
Warner Bros. films
1930s English-language films
1930s American films
Films about disability