I found this gem in the bargain bin but it is a must see for anyone interested in classic movies. I am a huge Jimmy Durante fan and he was terrific, but I thought Lupe Valez stole the show. She was an incredible comedic actress who died much too young. She lead a tragic life but you would never know it by her performance here. Jimmy Durante was just non stop in your face comedy. He was a great entertainer with heart and intensity. Also, William Cagney did a wonderful job as Al McSwatt and Marjorie Rambeau was unforgettable as Mayme Palooka. This had me laughing from start to finish and the ending was the biggest laugh of all.

"Palooka" (1934) has wonderful actor work by Jimmy Durante, Lupe Velez, and Robert Armstrong ---------- This movie is an example of extremely good acting worth seeing, but brought down by not-so-good directing, script writing, and dull casting choices (esp. Stuart Erwin, the lead "Joe Palooka" protagonist character).The movie was made in 1933, though 1934 is given as its release date of record.Robert Armstrong starred in King Kong (1933), made in 1932, but not released until 1933, possibly not until after the much less famous "Palooka" (1934) movie was made and/or released.His role as Joe Palooka's father is minor, but very well acted.For me, the most spectacular part of this movie, and the reason I gave it a highest possible rating, is the unexpected and serious actor work of Jimmy Durante.In several scenes in this movie, Jimmy Durante breaks character away from his usual and familiar comic exasperated buffoon character, and becomes a serious actor portraying scenes of riveting, serious intensity.He gets angry and threatens people and isn't nice about it....intends to scare them, and obviously succeeds.He becomes scary and does a very good job at portraying that.Jimmy Durante could obviously have been a serious actor in gangster pictures of the Edward G. Robinson type, or unique movies which might have been labeled "the Jimmy Durante type." Who can say? I've watched his comic and musical performances my whole life starting in the early 1950's when I was 9 years old and he appeared and starred in TV's "The Colgate Comedy Hour." I've seen him in MGM musicals co-starring with Frank Sinatra and Esther Williams and others, always as a comic "second banana." But his performance in "Palooka" (1934) in perhaps 30 seconds total of serious scenes is very new for me, and quite wonderful (I am a retired SAG-AFTRA movie actor....worked 55 years as an actor before retiring, also taught college level movie history for 5 years, and I appreciate excellent actor work, which Durante displayed in "Palooka.")Lupe Velez is yet another good actor (actress) in this movie.Her career and life was brief, and she died young (in the 1940's in her 30's).But she is electric in every movie I've seen her in from "The Gaucho" (1928 MGM - Silent) starring Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. to this movie, and others.She was an actress with true "star quality," an electric magnetism which seems to "jump off the screen" into the audience and is always sure to delight them.Few ever had it or have it now, but Lupe Valez, Jimmy Durante, and Robert Armstrong all had it, and are all in this movie.Any movie buff or scholar who desires to study and experience high quality, charismatic actor work....top of the "food chain" acting.... should see this movie, and be patient with it's flaws and shortcomings.Acting teachers should use this movie to show acting students what good acting is, and what can and has happened to good actors in otherwise flawed movies.

I'm referring to the audience and the women who love the men in the ring of course. The story starts in the early 1900's when the senior Palooka (Robert Armstrong) was champ and his wife (the ultra tough Marjorie Rambeau) caught him in a compromising position with a prize-fighting groupie (Thelma Todd). Kicking him to the curb, she doesn't expect their infant son to grow up to be in the same profession, but cut 30 years, and young Joe Palooka (Stuart Erwin) does exactly that after an encounter with boxing manager Jimmy Durante during which time he knocks out a current champ. Heading off to the big city without his mother's knowledge, he ends up one of the top fighters, and after beating up a challenger (William Cagney), he wins over Cagney's girl (Lupe Velez) and heads towards the championship much to his mother's chagrin.Between groupies Todd and Velez and fighting wife Rambeau, the women are just as prepared for a fight as the men in their lives. In fact, Rambeau walks out on Armstrong with no words unspoken, even giving her rival something she'll never forget. Velez isn't the tough cookie of the "Mexican Spitfire" series she did years later, but she's certainly more scheming and even gets to perform a nightclub number. Durante gets to perform a drunken version of "Inka Dinka Doo", his signature song. The lovable Louise Beavers plays Rambeau's housekeeper, commenting on country life, "The only rooster I want to see is a black one walking down Lennox Avenue towards me". Fast-moving and witty, this also has several moral lessons about the issues of what it takes to be a prize- fighter. You may confuse William Cagney with a certain other actor with the same last name with good reason.

Surprisingly spry given that this film is a premise to film antiquity. I always knew who Jimmy Durante was as a late boomer, but I had never seen him in his prime until this movie. I'm glad I did. He doesn't pretend to be an actor and delivers his lines with a uniform delivery. He's not a very funny man, but a weird oddity as an entertainer, the likes of whom would never ever be taken seriously in today's world of commodified entertainers. What's another point of interest in this film is the appearance of a William Cagney,brother of James....I assume the older of the two. Cagney's first scene when he shows up to his fight pie-eyed is a rather realistic and understated portrayal of drunkenness. There is plenty of drinking in this movie and many people get drunk. What's also an unexpectedly nice touch to this film is that the RELATIONSHIPS ARE BELIEVABLE. Filial conflict peppers this film in that the protagonist has to wrestle with his divided loyalty as cornered by his mother and father. Sometimes the film veers off into unbelievable ridicularity that could never respect the viewer; like when Durante wobbles drunkenly down the street, smashes a showcase window, then enters the display and starts his riinka-dinnk routine on the display's piano The least acquired appreciation for the film is its presence of Runyan-esquire toughs. These actors are CHARACTERS, not celebrities acting in obvious vehicles. Worth a look.