Topic: The Champs Step Out (1951) - Max Baer & Maxie Rosenbloom

[Paul Pain]

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0186916/

Max Baer and Maxie Rosenbloom made four Columbia shorts together.  Of these, only one, THE CHAMPS STEP OUT, survives to 2020.  Both were former champion boxers who retired to a career of comedic acting.  They teamed up to make many films, including these Columbia shorts.  Maxis now nest known as the father of Max Baer, Jr., aka Jethro Bodine from THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES.

Max and Maxie are neither bad nor good.  They're serviceable, like most Columbia comedians.  And, in true fashion, they serviceably rework a Three Stooges short, WHO DONE IT?  Maxie basically has one shtick: a big stupid violent lug; Max is the leader who knows when to break out his fists.  They make a good team, but this clearly wasn't their style.

Emil Sitka is a legend in his own right, and this short belongs in his highlight reel.  The man was a comic genius, and he takes both violent abuse from Maxie and displays astoundingly violent tendencies.  He is the best part of this short from start to finish.

Jean Willes is a dish as always, and a good acting one at that.  She does extremely well in the role originally played by Christine McIntyre.  She is the highlight of the band of villains for sure.

The plot sure lacks compared to the original, but the cast did well with it.  The pterodactyl egg football was a bit bizarrely out-of-place, but still a chuckle.  But, there is an over-emphasis for sure on finding excuses for Max and Maxie to be throwing their fists around, including extended fistfight scenes.  And, the short ends with a classic spear-in-the-rear.

6/10

[HomokHarcos]

Wow, I didn't know Max Baer was in Columbia comedy shorts. I found this short very entertaining (then again, I love the house style). My favorite part was when the villains were doing a team-up beatdown on Baer, I was afraid he was going to be a boring invincible hero that just beats everybody, but instead he was on the receiving end of a lot of slapstick bits.

Enjoyable comedy, even though some of the parts (such as the drink being drugged) had been used several times.

[metaldams]

I’m going to watch this tomorrow.  By pure coincidence, I’m listening to Randy Skretvedt’s audio commentary for WAY OUT WEST.  Apparently, this team made another Columbia short, ROOTIN’ TOOTIN’ TENDERFEET (1952), that’s a remake.

[metaldams]

Serviceable is the correct word for this and more fascinating if you like The Three Stooges and Columbia shorts.  Baer and Rosenbloom are just OK.  The latter is a big dim witted lug who has his act down well and the former is, well, a legit former heavyweight champion whose physical presence is his greatest asset.  Edward Bernds used this to great effect here, as the man could throw a legit punch and got to do so here in some of the climatic bits.

Really though, the comedy team makes a good physical presence, but the acting chops belong to Emil Sitka and Jean Willes.  The former, like Paul said, really puts in one for his highlight reel here.  Sitka has high anxiety down really well and is a lot of fun to watch.  Jean Willes always commands the screen when she’s on it.  She acts rough and commanding as the femme fatale and looks like a million bucks.

Yeah, a few bits from WHO DONE IT? and THE HOT SCOTS here.  Not as good without the Stooges but again, serviceable.  The poison drink scene is way more abbreviated compared to the Stooge version and it’s simply because Shemp can carry out such a scene longer than Max Baer.

Good short of interest to Stooge fans.  Check it out.

[Umbrella Sam]

Seriously, did Columbia use this story for all of their comedy teams? I did not realize how many variants there were on this storyline.

To their credit, both Max and Maxie had experience in comedy films before this. Max Baer was in AFRICA SCREAMS and Maxie Rosenbloom was briefly paired in a comedy trio with Shemp and Billy Gilbert. Rosenbloom is pretty much the dumb guy, just as he was in TROUBLE CHASERS (and, to a lesser extent, CRAZY KNIGHTS). He’s serviceable in that kind of role, especially when he has someone like Shemp to work off of. Unfortunately, Baer is not the best person to work off of. In AFRICA SCREAMS he was essentially a henchmen, with the only real funny thing about his role being him and Buddy getting into a fight over a misunderstanding. He’s also essentially playing the same role here, which is fine as far as watching the fight at the end, but as far as comedy goes, is not that entertaining.

The beginning is pretty good. The idea that they would hire two professional fighters to protect the valuables does make a lot of sense in theory, and I do really like the “collector” misunderstanding between Rosenbloom and Emil Sitka. Sitka is especially great here; the ending with him freaking out at Baer and Rosenbloom is hilarious. The rest of it is basically just stock gags; the “switching drinks” scene, the “mistaking a crook for your friend” bit, etc. Again, it’s not the greatest pairing in the first place, so it’s not all that entertaining, although the moments I mentioned are still pretty good, so I found it to be mildly entertaining, although I certainly could not see these two headlining an entire series together.

7 out of 10