The Champ

Compressed melodrama, Wallace Beery (title character) and Jackie Cooper (his son "Dink") watch "Little Champ" run his first race, as Linda (Irene Rich), with husband Tony (Hale Hamilton) realizes she's just met the son she gave up, then a crash, King Vidor directing MGM's The Champ, 1931.

At first amicable Tony (Carleton Young) and Linda (Irene Rich) see off her long-lost son Dink (Jackie Cooper) after a visit, his father (Wallace Beery, title character, with sidekick Roscoe Ates) paid for his trouble, then later in a Tijuana casino, pressed to compromise, in The Champ, 1931.

Straight from the titles, pointing out that they are on location in Tijuana, Mexico, Wallace Beery the title character, Jackie Cooper the son "Dink," in the hit that made them both box office stars, Jesse Scott the young friend, from King Vidor and MGM, in The Champ, 1931.

LA boxing promoters visiting Tijuana rightly conclude that former champ Wallace Beery (title character) is not up to a fight, his posse (Roscoe Ates, Edward Brophy) splitting, leaving son Dink (Jackie Cooper) in an early, intimate scene from director King Vidor, in The Champ, 1931.

Wallace Beery got the Oscar but Jackie Cooper stole the show in the 1931 version of The Champ, directed by King Vidor.