(Review originally written at 14 May 2008)

Director Raoul Walsh was like the Michael Bay of the '40's and years before that. And I mean that in a positive way, since I'm definitely ain't no Bay-hater. His movies are just simple high quality entertainment, just like the Raoul Walsh movies were in his days.

"Gentleman Jim" is fine quality entertainment. Besides a first class director, it also features a first grade cast, with Raoul Walsh's regular leading man Errol Flynn in the main part.

What surprised me was how well the boxing matches were brought to the screen. They used some very dynamic camera-work, which also really made the boxing matches uplifting and exciting to watch, with the end championship fight against John L. Sullivan as the ultimate highlight.

Biopics of the '40's and earlier on were obviously still very much different from biographies being made this present day. Modern biographies often glorify its main subject and show his/her life from basically birth till death and everything, mostly emotional aspects, in between. 'Old' biopics were just made the same as movies that weren't based on actual real life persons, which also means that the film-makers would often use a use amount of creative liberty with the main character's personality and events that happened in his/her life. This movie is also not just a biography about a boxing legend but also forms a nice portrayal from the period when illegal bare knuckle fighting entered the modern era of boxing.

Errol Flynn does a great job portraying the real life famous boxer James J. Corbett aka Gentleman Jim. Not too many people known it but Flynn did some real good acting jobs in the '40's, of which this movie is one. Fysicaly he also looks in top-shape. He also looks quite different by the way without his trademark small mustache in this movie. The movie also features some fine supporting actors and some fine acting throughout.

A great and entertaining movie that also still truly holds up real well today.

8/10

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(Review originally written at 8 April 2008)

It's hard to imaging these days but there was a time when Humphrey Bogart was nothing more than an actor who always played secondary character roles, in the shadow of the movie its main character. For instance behind George Raft, who was a much bigger star at the time but also female leads such as Ida Lupino, who also stars in this movie. But Raft then turned down roles for movies such as this movie "High Sierra", "The Maltese Falcon" and "Casablanca". All roles that were then past on to Bogart instead. Roles that truly launched his career to an amazing height, surpassing George Raft by far. Still, he didn't received top-billing for this movie yet. That honor once more went to Ida Lupino, even though Bogart's role is much bigger and is unquestionably the main character of the movie. Ida Lupino was just a better selling name, which says something of the time period and point of Bogart's career this movie got made in. This movie really marked his big breakthrough and after this he would mostly only land roles as a top-billing actor, in movies such as "Casablanca", "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and "The Maltese Falcon".

But what makes this movie so great is not just Bogart but also really the movie its story and directing from Raoul Walsh.

The story is written by John Huston, who is better known as an actor and director than a writer, even though he wrote the screenplay for many fine movies. This is also truly one of those movies. It's really no formulaic story and truly highly original and therefor also compelling. The main character is in love with a girl who isn't in love with him, while there is another girl who is in love with him, though his heart is still with this other girl. Sounds melodramatic and perhaps confusing but it's something really refreshing to see and makes the story and character developments progress in a way you wouldn't always expect it to. On top of that there is a main plot-line involving a robbery but really the movie is mostly about its central character. This movie just has basically everything in its story that is needed to make a great movie with. Add to that the performance from Bogart and the fantastic directing from Raoul Walsh and you have a great, tense, entertaining, fast going and original classic movie.

It's not really fully a film-noir, since that genre was still pretty much non-existent at that time and was still a work in progress. This movie does show some noir tendencies, mostly with its lead character, female roles and the main plot line involving a robbery but it's not quite noir enough in its style to fully consider this a pure film-noir. It's the other Humphrey Bogart from later in the same year, "The Maltese Falcon" that is widely considered to be one of the first real film-noir's. Ironicly it was a movie directed by John Huston, the man who wrote the screenplay for this movie.

The movie also features some surprising good action sequences. You have to remember that this is an 1941, when the action genre was still something non-existent but director Raoul Walsh knows to create a couple of good looking action sequences with camera-positions and editing you would expect from an action movie that is being made this present day. Especially the car chases within this movie are memorable.

Interestingly enough director Raoul Walsh himself remade this movie 8 years later into a western movie "Colorado Territory", that might not be as good as this original but it's just as good, intriguing and entertaining on its own and remains an under-appreciated movie.

A real perfect classic and still an unique movie to watch.

10/10

(Review originally written at 7 November 2007)

Yeah, sure I missed Errol Flynn, but Gregory Peck is of course a more than great substitute. He plays a great and compelling character and I way only he could do. And just leave it up to director Raoul Walsh to make a good entertaining swashbuckler!

The movie has a great adventurous historic story, about life on the sea. It isn't constantly action but still the movie constantly maintains a pleasant atmosphere. But still the movie also has some good action moments in it as well. The sea battles are truly great! But unfortunately the movie also feels the need to put in a love interest and love-story of course. The movie starts to go a bit downhill after the love-story kicks in, since it takes away lots of the pace and adventurous atmosphere of the movie. Luckily after that the movie soon starts to become fast and entertaining again. Because there are many different things happening in the movie, with changing characters and enemies, the movie feels much longer than its 'merely' 117 minutes, which is a real positive thing to say in this case.

No, this movie really ain't no swashbuckler like the used to make in the '30's but nevertheless the movie has different qualities and is great to watch on its own, mainly because it's such a well made movie.

The directing is great and so is the overall pace. You can really tell director Raoul Walsh is really comfortable within the genre. The effects are also very good and convincing looking for its time. Only problem is that the movie too often makes sudden leaps in time. The time-line of the movie doesn't always feel sensible.

The movie truly benefits from Gregory Peck's presence. He uplifts the movie and he fits the role surprisingly well. It's fun that the movie also features a still young Christopher Lee as well, in one of his first small movie roles. At least he can say that he once crossed swords with Gregory Peck. Most other actors in the movie aren't really much impressive, including Virginia Mayo (who?).

All in all a great movie to watch!

8/10