Knockout, The (1932)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
Decent entry in Hal Roach's "The Boy Friends" series has Mickey (Mickey Daniels) at a co-ed dance where he admits to never kissing a girl. Soon a bunch of older guys bust in and humiliate Mickey but, after receiving a kiss, he ends up knocking out a Freshman boxer. With the big fight the next day, Mickey must fill in and go against the Sophomore boxer. I believe this is my fourth or fifth film from the series and I must admit that they're growing on me even though this one here isn't the best of the bunch. I'm really not sure what to think of Mickey because, on one hand, he's incredibly annoying but at the same time there's something about him that makes me feel sorry for him so rooting for him in something like this is very easy to do. I thought he gave a pretty good performance here and he's certainly not scared to embarrass himself because there are several times here he's made to look incredibly stupid. The supporting male actors pretty much stay in the background but Mary Kornman is very good in her part as the girlfriend. I think the film has a few too many spots without any laughs but when the big boxing match comes up there are plenty of moments that managed to make me laugh including the "trip up" to where Mickey is finally able to get a few punches in.