Champ for a Day

Champ for a Day

HIS FISTS...Made For Killing...HER LIPS...Made For Kissing

NR 1953 · 90 min · ★ 7.0 · Crime, Comedy, Drama

An up-and-coming heavyweight fighter, George Wilson, arrives in Vulcan City, a small mid-western town over-run by racketeers, to fight a heavily-favored Frankie Sebastian. George arrives but his manager Dolan is nowhere to be found. But Ma and Pa Karlsen, owners of Karlsen's Kozy Kottages motel and restaurant take him under their wing. He meets Miss Gormley who is also there to meet the no-show manager who is blackmailing her brother. Dolan still hasn't arrived by the date of the fight but, to the surprise of sports-promoters Tom Healy and Dominic Guido, George shows up and wins the fight. This wins him the friendship of trainer Al Muntz and the enmity of Willie Foltis, a punchy ex-fighter and a Healy henchman. This leads George to a fight with "Soldier" Freeman, whose manager Scotty Cameron has made arrangements for the favored-Freeman to take a dive, so he and Healy and Guido can clean up betting on the underdog. But Honest George has other plans.

Directed by William A. Seiter · Written by Irving Shulman

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Cast

Alex Nicol George Wilson
Audrey Totter Miss Peggy Gormley
Charles Winninger Pa Karlsen
Hope Emerson Ma Karlsen
Joseph Wiseman Dominic Guido
Barry Kelley Tom Healy
Harry Morgan Al Muntz
Jesse White Willie Foltis
Horace McMahon Sam Benton
Grant Withers Scott Cameron
Dick Wessel 'Speedtrap' Calhoun
Hal Baylor 'Soldier' Freeman

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