On G List of Movie Reviews
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Golden Boy (1939)
Rate:
4
Viewed:
7/26
7/26:
Golden Boy invariably comes up whenever the early part of William Holden's career is mentioned.
In fact, there's a biography called Golden Boy: The Untold Story of William Holden by Bob Thomas.
However, he doesn't cover the film that much as compared to others like
Sunset Boulevard, Sabrina,
and The Wild Bunch because, quite frankly, it isn't good.
If there's a surprise, Clifford Odets wrote the play because I think back to about how much better it was
in The Big Knife, illustrating the definition of a morality tale.
The truth is that it got mangled by four different screenwriters: Lewis Meltzer, Daniel Taradash, Sarah Y.
Mason, and Victor Heerman. The dialogue is simply dated. Nobody cares about the future of violin-playing
although that's been the case for Paul Muni.
Toward the end, I thought Joe Bonaparte would die because it's been the expected outcome all along, but nope.
What the heck? That's exactly what happened in the original play, but Hollywood wanted it changed. There's also
a lot of static direction along with the schmaltzy tone that's heavily supplied by Lee J. Cobb as Joe's father.
Back to William Holden, I can't believe how young he looks. It's his third film ever, but first in a
leading role which was meant for John Garfield (Warner Bros. refused to loan him to Columbia), and he was
nearly 21 years old at the time. He's also green behind the ears. As for others like Barbara Stanwyck, who
should be credited forever for saving William Holden's career after the disastrous start of filming, and Adolphe
Menjou, they're all right but have been forced to talk a lot, showing no depth.
All in all, forget Golden Boy and check out Raging Bull, a
boxing masterpiece of real depth.