Jimmy Dolan's life

It's been over ten years since I recommended the pretty darn good John Garfield movie They Made Me a Criminal. It's going to be on TCM again tomorrow (May 2) at 11:15 AM. But I mention that more because the movie is a remake of another movie that I recently watched, The Life of Jimmy Dolan.

Obviously, having seen the remake, I pretty much knew the story, although there are some minor changes to the details since this one was made before the code really started cracking down. Douglas Fairbanks Jr. stars as Jimmy Dolan, a boxer who at the start of the movie is winning the light heavyweight championship of the world. Dolan has built a carefully crafted image of an erudite (at least for a boxer) man who loves his mother and lives as good and clean a life as you could expect from a boxer. Of course, none of that's true, as Jimmy goes up to see his floozie of a girlfriend and drink even though it's the Prohibition era.

Somehow, in addition to Jimmy's manager Doc (Lyle Talbot) and Doc's girlfriend Budgie showing up, a reporter shows up as well. That's the big problem, because while Doc will keep Jimmy's hypocrisy a secret, the reporter won't do so. In the heated discussion, Jimmy punches the reporter, who falls backward and hits his head, killing him immediately. Poor Jimmy, up for manslaughter if not worse.

Oh, and there's goin gto be worse. Jimmy is drunk and passes out, so Doc takes Jimmy's watch and girlfriend, and drives off. The police chase, and Doc crashes, killing him and the girlfriend, and burning them beyond recognition. The only issue is that watch, which doesn't get burned beyond recognition. This enables the authorities to make an identification, not having proper dental records, and declare that Jimmy died in the crash. And there's no good way he can come out and say that he's not really dead, because then he'll get arrested for killing the reporter.

Having been screwed over by his manager and his attorney, Jimmy becomes a tramp, heading west to parts unknown where his face won't be recognized and in theory he could get honest work, at least if there weren't a depression going on to go along with Prohibition. Eventually, having run out of money, Jimmy collapses at a small farm somewhere out west.

That farm is run by two women, Peggy (Loretta Young) and her aunt (Aline MacMahon). Peggy's aunt is a widow, having been married to a doctor who was doing charity work by taking custody of orphans who had some sort of paralytic disease (I don't think the disease is mentioned although I'd guess polio), fostering them and trying to show there are ways to nurse these children back to health. The doctor's death, however, means there's not much money left for the two women, and having another mouth to feed -- and and adult male at that -- is going to be an issue.

But at least Jimmy is able to do some of the work. And he might just be able to help the women out with their financial difficulties. A barnstorming boxer blows into town, running the scheme that dumb local schlubs put up entry fees and then get a substantial sum of money for each round they can complete against the heavyweight. Most of the amateurs aren't going to get through even one round, but of course Jimmy is a ringer, and surprisingly one that the barnstormer's manager doesn't recognize.

Still, Jimmy knows that if he goes into the ring there are bound to be people who do recognize him, especially Phlaxer (Guy Kibbee), a detective from back in New York who has been on the case because he knows there was something fishy about that car crash and is convinced it wasn't Jimmy who died in the crash.

The Life of Jimmy Dolan isn't a bad little early 1930s programmer, but I have to admit that I don't think it's quite as good as They Made Me a Criminal. I woud argue that this comes down to the casting for the lead role. As I mentioned back in 2012, John Garfield was exceedingly well cast for a role that requires some moral darkness. Fairbanks, on the other hand, was better suited to light romantic comedies, and comes across as a bit of a phony in the scenes where he's supposed to show his anger. I think the Dead End Kids in the latter film also work better than the too cute for their own good ragamuffins we have here.

Even so, The Life of Jimmy Dolan is definitely worth a watch, and you can see why Warner Bros. would want to trot this property out again for Garfield.