fford Odets was adapted to the screen and released by Columbia Pictures in 1939. This classic film introduced a bright new face and talent to audiences in the form of William Holden. As Joe 
Bonaparte, “the Golden Boy”, Holden plays a promising young violinist who is equally adept as a hard-hitting boxer. The film dramatically focuses on the young man’s desire to help his poor, working-class family by turning his “golden” hands into cold cash, not with the violin, but in the boxing ring. Actor Lee J. Cobb recreates his stage role as the father with high hopes for his son’s artistic future. Joe, 
however, decides that boxing would bring money much faster. His clever manager and trainer, Tom Moody (Adolphe Menjou), launches him on the road to a championship career, while Joe’s worldly-wise girlfriend Lorna Moon (Barbara Stanwyck), who originally helped lure him into boxing, unsuccessfully tries to convince him that he is merely a pawn and doesn’t belong in the fight racket.Golden Boy climaxes with Joe’s most important match. Victory will bring him within one step of
the championship crown. He boxes ferociously with a relentless determination to win, but his resulting victory breaks his hand an
d leaves his opponent dead on the canvas. Joe agonizes over the terrible price he has paid for his fame, but instead of taking his life and Lorna’s, as in the stage play, the film version has Lorna consoling Joe in the final scene, assuring him that he will one day again play the violin— another typical Hollywood ending.We have always enjoyed watching Golden Boy and find the scenes in which Joe plays the violin v
ery moving, especially when he can no longer play very well, much to his father’s immense disappointment. All performances in this
film are first-rate. It is worth mentioning that at the Academy Awards in 1978, William Holden publicly thanked Barbara Stanwyck for her support of him during the making of Golden Boy. It seems it was her influence that kept Holden from being replaced in the film due to his lack of 
experience. Holden credited her for saving his acting career. He has long been a favorite screen actor of ours’ and we, too, are thankful that Miss Stanwyck stepped in as she did. Watch Golden Boy or any of the Fabulous Films of 1939 that we are now featuring in our blog. You’ll be glad you did.**Trivia Question for Today: What other “boxing-oriented” classic was released in 1939 and starred John Garfield with the “Dead End Kids”? The answer will appear in our next post. Check out “Let’s Talk Classic Movies” every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Trivia Answer for Previous Post: The two-billed cap (one in front and one in back) that Sherlock Holmes is famous for wearing is called a “deerstalker”. After the first two films, Basil Rathbone replaced the old-fashioned cap with a fedora for his “modern-day” sleuthing.
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