The Champ is a 1931 American pre-Code film starring Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper and directed by King Vidor from a screenplay by Frances Marion, Leonard Praskins and Wanda Tuchock.

The picture tells the story of a washed-up alcoholic boxer (Beery) attempting to put his life back together for the sake of his young son (Cooper).

[3] Andy "Champ" Purcell (Wallace Beery) is the former world heavyweight champion, now down on his luck and living in squalid conditions with his eight-year-old son "Dink" in Tijuana, Mexico.

After a winning streak, he fulfills a previous promise to buy Dink a horse, whom they name "Little Champ" and decide to race.

When he sees Dink, Champ returns to good spirits, trains hard, and, for the first time, really does stay away from drinking and gambling.

Tony and Linda attend the fight, bringing best wishes and assurances that they will make no further efforts to separate Dink from Champ.

Screenwriter Frances Marion wrote the title role specifically for Wallace Beery,[4] whose formerly flourishing career, which had almost abruptly ended with the advent of sound, had been revitalized in 1930 with an Academy Award nomination for The Big House and the huge success of Min and Bill with Marie Dressler.

Director King Vidor eagerly took on the film since it emphasized the traditional family values and strong belief in hope—qualities he felt were essential to a good motion picture.

[5][6] Wallace Beery claimed to have turned down a $500,000 offer from a syndicate of Indian studios to play Buddha in order to take the role in The Champ.

[5] A special outdoor set, rather than location shooting, was built to accommodate the Tijuana horse racing track scenes.

[8] Shooting began in mid-August 1931[9] and ended eight weeks later, at which time Jackie Cooper's contract with Paramount Pictures was transferred to MGM.

[12] After the film's debut, Beery declared Cooper was a "great kid" but that he would not work with the child actor again,[7] a promise he broke within the year for the remake of Treasure Island and The Bowery.

[17] Time called the film repetitive, blasted Cooper for sniveling, and accused director King Vidor of laying "on pathos with a steam-shovel.

A number of motion pictures in the 1930s, some of them also starring Wallace Beery, repeated the basic story about a man surrendering to drink and redeemed by the love of his long-suffering son.

The film itself also received overwhelmingly positive reviews; as of now, it holds a 96% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes.