GOLDEN BOY (Columbia 1939) Sony Home Entertainment
As co-presenters at the 1978 Academy Awards, William
Holden suddenly departed from his scripted dialogue to acknowledge Barbara
Stanwyck as a ‘lovely human being’ for her ‘interest and understanding,
professional integrity, encouragement’, but ‘above all, her generosity’.
This heartfelt tribute had its roots in their co-starring together in Rouben
Mamoulian’s Golden Boy (1939), a picture in which then ‘newcomer’ Holden
was on the cusp of being replaced until Stanwyck, a seasoned veteran in the biz,
intervened on his behalf, imploring the director, but more importantly, Columbia
Studio head, Harry Cohn to just be patient and allow nature to take its course.
Based on Clifford Odets’ powerful stage
sensation, Golden Boy is a high-octane melodrama about an ambitious young
man and his aspirations to make the big time. Just what this means remains up
for grabs, especially when the guy happens to be multi-talented. The film that
catapulted Holden to stardom almost did not happen. Reportedly, producer, William
Perlberg remained unimpressed by the rushes and went to Cohn to have Holden
fired. It did not help matters Odets had based the character of Joe Bonaparte
on then rising film star, John Garfield, whom he would have preferred in the
part.
Columbia exec’ Harry Cohn had other ideas. He wanted
to use the movie as a build-up for Holden’s career. Even so, Perlberg damn near
succeeded in having the part recast until Holden’s costar with the all the
cache, Stanwyck – then, one of the hottest commodities in Tinsel Town - stepped
up, declaring that if Holden was fired, Columbia could also find themselves
another girl! While Cohn could afford to lose Holden, he could not take the
risk Stanwyck would make good on her threat. Hence, ‘the boy’ stayed in the picture,
working twice as hard to make a success of it. Besides, Columbia had already shelled out $100,000
for the rights to produce it. In the preliminary stages, the picture was
briefly considered for Jean Arthur – then, one of the studio’s reigning queens,
and Frank Capra, to direct. As the project morphed, Elia Kazan, Richard
Carlson, and Tyrone Power were all names bandied about for the part of Joe. But
Mamoulian liked Holden after seeing a screen test, and convinced Cohn to buy up
half his contract from Paramount, which had – thus far – failed to utilize Holden
to his best effect. If Odets did not care for Holden, he was far less impressed
with the changes made to his stagecraft in order to satisfy Hollywood’s
self-governing code of censorship. The most unforgivable loss, as far as Odets
was concerned, was the ending. In the play, Joe and his lover, Lorna decide to
escape their problems, but are killed in a horrific auto accident. In keeping
with Hollywood’s verve for the ‘happy ending’, the movie concludes with Joe and
Lorna returning home together.
Golden Boy’s story picks up with a young Joe arriving at the
office of fight manager, Tom Moody (Adolph Menjou) to inform him that his prize
pugilist has just broken his hand in a practice bout at the local gym.
Infuriated, Tom storms off to confront his boxer with girlfriend, Lorna Moon
(Stanwyck) and Joe in tow, only to discover it was Joe who broke the fighter’s
fist. Begging for the opportunity to sub in his place, the curmudgeonly Tom
eventually gives in to Joe’s relentless persuasion and is rewarded handsomely
when Joe wins the fight. Meanwhile, Joe’s father (Lee J. Cobb) has another
surprise in store for his son. Owing to Joe’s musical talent with the violin,
he has purchased the instrument for his 21st birthday. However, when
Joe returns home to tell his father he has chosen boxing over music, the tug-o-war
between struggling for one’s art, and, fame and fortune begins. At first Lorna
sees Joe as Tom’s latest cash cow – a means to an end. She desperately wants to
marry Tom and realizes that Joe’s victories will allow Tom to pay off his wife,
get a divorce and marry her. But quickly, another wrinkle begins to tear at
Lorna’s heart – her own growing romantic affections for this young buck, and,
her rather ‘motherly’ concern for the preservation of his rising fame and
general safety. When Tom attempts to rig a fight with local gangster, Eddie
Fuseli (Joseph Calleia) Lorna must choose between love, sacrifice and profit.
Golden Boy remains a story of considerable stealth and
sincerity. Everyone is functioning at high capacity. Holden’s awkwardness as an
actor is just what the role requires. Stanwyck smolders with sultry allure.
Menjou does his embittered cynic routine to perfection. Joseph Calleia’s smarmy
hood lends a delicious air of fatalism to a movie whose grisly cynicism greatly
benefits from Nicholas Musuraca and Karl Freund’s B&W cinematography and Victor
Young’s Oscar-nominated underscore. Mamoulian’s direction is smooth and well-paced.
Yes, it’s still a compromised version of Odets’ passionate stagecraft, and, the
nonsensical ‘happily ever after’ drives a wooden stake through the ferocity of this
otherwise riveting melodrama. But Holden
plays Joe with a spontaneous sympathy, making it easy to comprehend why the
otherwise gold-digging Lorna should suddenly change horses in mid-stride to
fall in love with Joe. And there remains enough affected energy pulsating
through the piece that, like most of Odets’ work, weaves its ethics and truthfulness
into this corrupt world where these characters must struggle, merely to stay
alive, but also, to find meaning in their lives. That Golden Boy now
dates, and, plays as something of a sad reminder, gleaned from an era when naïve
optimism reigned supreme, does not diminish its essential address of a timeless
conflict, that those afflicted with moral integrity endure, to reconcile the
merits of their faith and lives, via ‘art versus commerce’.
At long last, Sony Home Entertainment has seen fit to
release this long overdue catalog title to DVD. Were that they had found a way
to get it to Blu-ray as well. The B&W film elements appear to be in fairly
good condition. The gray scale is expansive and nicely balanced. Contrast
levels are refined. Blacks are black. Whites are relatively clean. A modicum of
film grain does not detract from an otherwise smooth visual presentation.
Occasionally, age-related artifacts intrude – but again, they are NOT
distracting. Overall, this is a very pleasing visual presentation. The audio is
Dolby Digital 1.0 mono and presented at an adequate listening level. Sony
appears to be going the route of Warner Bros. on this title, providing a litany
of unrelated – though thoroughly enjoyable – vintage short subjects as
supplemental extras. Bottom line: recommended!
FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)
4
VIDEO/AUDIO
3.5
EXTRAS
2
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