Tennessee Champ

Tennessee Champ

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Tennessee Champ
Keenan Wynn from the trailer
Directed by	Fred M. Wilcox
Produced by	Sol Baer Fielding
Written by	Art Cohn, Eustace Cockrell (story)
Based on	The Lord in his corner
Starring	Shelley Winters Keenan Wynn Charles Bronson
Music by	Conrad Salinger
Cinematography	George Folsey
Editing by	Ben Lewis
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release dates	1954
Running time	73 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$548,000[1]
Box office	$769,000[1]

Tennessee Champ is a 1954 drama with strong Christian overtones starring Shelley Winters, Keenan Wynn, Dewey Martin, and Charles Bronson (credited as Charles Buchinsky), and directed by Fred M. Wilcox.

Mounted as a title to fill out double and triple bills, Tennessee Champ was one of several films Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer shot in its pet process of Ansco Color, a ruddy-looking process employed on the same year's Brigadoon.

Tennessee Champ marked a return to Hollywood for star Shelley Winters, who hadn't appeared in a film in almost two years due to her marriage to Vittorio Gassman (which ended in June of 1954) and the birth of their child, Vittoria. The lull came at a strategic point in her career, just as she seemed to be on an upswing after roles in Winchester '73 (1950), Phone Call from a Stranger (1952), and her breakthrough tragic performance in A Place in the Sun (1951).

Contents

 [show] 

• 1 Plot
• 2 Reception
• 3 References
• 4 External links

Plot[edit]

Shelly Winters plays Sarah Wurble, whose husband, Willy (Keenan Wynn), is the larceny-inclined manager for an illiterate, and very religious boxer from Tennessee named Danny Norson (Dewey Martin). Gifted with a powerful punch and a nickname that gives the film its title, Danny mistakenly believes he killed man defending himself in a street brawl, and goes on the lam as a prizefighter. His Christian convictions turn out to be both a source of inspiration and, ultimately, conflict when Willy urges him to throw a fight (while mistakenly fearing Willy will turn him in on the murder charge if he doesn't throw the fight). Creditability flies out of the window when Daniel discovers the man he is to take on in the fixed fight is actually the man he thought he killed, Sixty Jubel, The 'Biloxi Blockbuster' (Charles Bronson). Danny's example of unwavering faith causes Willy to rethink his sinful ways.

Reception[edit]

According to MGM records the movie earned $555,000 in the US and Canada and $214,000 elsewhere, making a loss to the studio of $189,000.^[1]