The Contender

And acquires a son in the process. Widower Gary Farrell (Buster Crabbe) can't afford, on his $45-weekly salary as a truck driver, to send his young son, Mickey (Donald Mayo), to a high-priced military school and decides to enter heavyweight-boxing tournament in an effort to win the $500 prize money.

He wins and turns to boxing as a career and, in a short while (or 20 minutes running time)and under the guidance of "Pop" Turner (Milton Kibbee), becomes a Contender for the Heavyweight title.

Newspaper reporter Linda Martin is attracted to Farrell but he is paying more attention to the flashy Rita Langdon (Julie Gibson), who introduces him to night clubs, late hours, drinking, roistering and whatever other attractions the PCA code of the time allowed flashy blondes to introduce into the life of up-and-coming contenders.

Despite the warnings posted by Linda, Pop, Mickey and Biff Benham (Glenn Strange), his old cab-partner in the truck-driving business, Farrell continues to abuse all the training rules but still wins bout after bout.

Arline Judge, past her prime vamping days (on-screen, at least), plays the mousey role here, Linda the Social Worker, instead of the Rita-type role she usually played.