The Iron Man Reviews

When Kid Mason (Lew Ayres), a promising lightweight, loses a big fight, Rose (Jean Harlow), his domineering, money-hungry wife, leaves him to search for fame as an actress in Hollywood, much to the delight of the Kid's manager, George Regan (Robert Armstrong), who puts his lovesick fighter on a rigorous training program to prepare for a comeback. Not surprisingly, the boxer starts winning again, and before you can count to 10, Rose is back, Regan is out of a job, Paul Lewis (John Miljan)--Rose's secret lover--is installed as Kid's manager, and Kid begins losing his edge again. With a big bout close at hand and Kid wholly unprepared for it, Regan presents the fighter with startling evidence of Rose's infidelity, but though the Kid enters the ring a wiser man, he still isn't through getting his lumps. Directed by horror master Tod Browning (FREAKS; DRACULA) and based on a W.R. Burnett novel, IRON MAN is a competent if unremarkable film. Though the featured stars were Ayres and Harlow, Armstrong grabs the picture away from them with his rapid-fire delivery and hard-boiled mannerisms. THE IRON MAN was remade in 1937 as SOME BLONDES ARE DANGEROUS and again in 1951 under its original title.