SUCKER PUNCH
Boxing films of the 1930s, 40s and 50s
new illustrated paperback out now FROM CHAPLIN BOOKS
at £14.99.
ebook also available
Model and Actress
ABOUT THE BOOK
The 1930s, 40s and 50s were the heyday of the boxing film, attracting some of the biggest stars of the time - including Errol Flynn, James Cagney, Kirk Douglas and Paul Newman - and some of the best directors. Yet it is a genre that has received little critical attention apart from a few films singled out because they can be categorised as ‘film noir’. It would be easy to assume, therefore, that the typical boxing film of this period was a dark melodrama with the tragic and doomed figure of the boxer at its centre, but that gives a false picture of a genre that included comedies
and costume dramas among its 130-plus films.
Sucker Punch invites the reader to take a wider look at the scope and breadth of the genre by providing a detailed discussion of 20 boxing films - a selection from each decade – from Hollywood and British studios. .
The book draws on contemporary sources, such as trade-paper film reviews, as well as modern academic criticism, to build a highly
readable account of the development of the boxing genre
and its narrative conventions.
the films discussed
Palooka (1934)
The Milky Way (1936)
Kid Galahad (1937)
They Made Me a Criminal (1939)
Kid Nightingale (1939)
There Ain't No Justice (1939)
Golden Boy (1939)
City for Conquest (1940)
The Pittsburgh Kid (1941)
Ringside Maisie (1941)
Gentleman Jim (1942)
Body and Soul (1947)
The Set Up (1949)
Champion (1949)
The Ring (1952)
Kid Monk Baroni (1952)
The Square Ring (1953)
The Joe Louis Story (1953)
The Harder They Fall (1956)
Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DR Amanda J Field is. A FILM HISTORIAN AND the author of a number of books ON FILM AND POPULAR CULTURE including 'ENGLAND'S SECRET WEAPON - the wartime films of Sherlock Holmes, and THE RADIANT ABYSS - the imaging of Victorian London in jack the ripper films.
HOW TO BUY THE BOOK
TITLE: SUCKER PUNCH - BOXING FILMS OF THE 1930S, 40S AND 50S
AUTHOR: AMANDA J FIELD
PUBLISHER: CHAPLIN BOOKS
PAPERBACK: 300 PAGES, OVER 100 BLACK-AND-WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS,
ISBN 978-1-911105-69-5
£14.99
available through any bookshop or internet book retailer
ebook also available for all platforms
