Champion (1949)

 While the Hays Code may have been in full effect, I found this film to have a satisfying ending.

Michael 'Midge' Kelly (Kirk Douglas) and his brother, Connie (the underrated Arthur Kennedy) are basically bums, broke and desperate. And Midge is hungry for fame. After getting too frisky with the boss's daughter, Emma (Ruth Roman), they hoodwink him into marrying her, but Midge leaves her at the altar, not in the traditional sense, he leaves directly after putting the ring on her finger. Instead, he decides to become a boxer and he does well. 

However, he refuses to purposely lose a fight to Johnny Dunne (John Day), he is nearly blacklisted and leaves his dedicated trainer, Tommy Haley (Paul Stewart) and joins with the high roller, Harris (Luis Van Rooten), falling in love with both Harris's mistress, Grace (Marilyn Maxwell), who has expensive taste and his wife, Palmer (Lola Albright) who is a genuine human being. But, at the end of the day, money is Midge's only love. 

And he's manipulative, persuading his brother and wife to support him for his last big fight, once again against Johnny Dunne (he's won several other major matches in the interim) and he's getting pounded but he rallies, refusing to be called a loser. At the end, it appears Johnny's in bad shape, and Midge is hurried out of the ring where he later dies in the dressing room, brain damage from all those nasty punches he endured. This leaves it open for Emma to end up with Connie, the far nicer of the two brothers. 

While Midge is a arrogant jerk and an asshole toward women, he is the underdog and sometimes you just have to root for the underdog. However, I was actually rooting for Connie, who stumbled (literally) around throughout the film, trying to find his purpose in life. Connie ends up winning. Sometimes,  the good guy wins. Douglas's performance is electric and Kennedy is great in his understated role. Though this film may not hold up entirely well, it doesn't hold up as badly as many others and again, I found the ending solid, albeit somewhat predictable. Grade: A-

Side Notes:

-It is a miracle that Midge doesn't knock up any of his three love interests as it is heavily implied he had sex with all of them.

-Toward the end, it is strongly implied that Midge assaults Emma as he refuses to leave when she wants him to. 

-It is never explained why Connie had a limp, when the actor didn't, nor does it ever mention what Connie is short for, though I suspect Conrad.

-Though Midget was placed in an orphanage for a time, he is still far more loyal to his mother than his wife.