Product Description

The classic cinema version of the famous comic strip by Ham Fisher. Knobby Walsh discovers Joe Palooka on a farm, and decides to make him a world champion. The road to fame, although hilarious, is far from smooth. Fast punches fast women and fast jokes cascade on the lovable Palooka. runyonesque characters in and around the ring, provide the color unique to the boxing world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #100621 in DVD
• Published on: 2003
• Released on: 2004-09-28
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 86 minutes

Customer Reviews

PALOOKA!!!!!
This is one of my favorite films. The 30's music and the fantastic cast make this such a gem of a film. It's unfortunate there are nothing but public domain copies. I have the disc from Miracle Pictures and it's probably comparable with the others. For a dollar store DVD, the print looks pretty decent and complete. The soundtrack does have a good amount of hiss in it, but I can live with that just to have the film. I don't know why Roan or Image haven't done a release of a classic like this.

Worth Seeing Only For Lupe Velez
I got a kick out of this film for the first half of it, but it got so stupid with the main characters that I had a hard time finishing it. However, it was still worth a look to see Lupe Velez.

I had read what a strange character Velez was in real life, and that she was sexy woman, so at least I have now seen her. She was a very pretty lady and not shy, either. This film just made it under the wire before the Hays Code came along, so Lupe showed us about all of her [...]. If this film had been made a year later, she would have been forced to cover up.

Stu Erwin plays the boxer "Joe Palooka." He plays a really inept fighter and stupid guy in general who is endearing for awhile but wears thin. The same goes for Jimmy Durante's role of fight manager "Knobby Walsh."

Anyway, this is typical early '30s material which means very corny and dated in the humor and romance department, sometimes hilarious and a bit racy.