Backdrop image for movie Champ for a Day

Champ for a Day (1953)

An up-and-coming heavyweight fighter, George Wilson, arrives in Vulcan City, a small mid-western town over-run by racketeers, to fight a heavily-favored Frankie Sebastian. George arrives but his manager Dolan is nowhere to be found. But Ma and Pa Karlsen, owners of Karlsen's Kozy Kottages motel and restaurant take him under their wing. He meets Miss Gormley who is also there to meet the no-show manager who is blackmailing her brother. Dolan still hasn't arrived by the date of the fight but, to the surprise of sports-promoters Tom Healy and Dominic Guido, George shows up and wins the fight. This wins him the friendship of trainer Al Muntz and the enmity of Willie Foltis, a punchy ex-fighter and a Healy henchman. This leads George to a fight with "Soldier" Freeman, whose manager Scotty Cameron has made arrangements for the favored-Freeman to take a dive, so he and Healy and Guido can clean up betting on the underdog. But Honest George has other plans.

Crime
Comedy
Drama

Top billed cast

Alex NicolGeorge Wilson
Audrey TotterMiss Peggy Gormley
Charles WinningerPa Karlsen
Hope EmersonMa Karlsen
Joseph WisemanDominic Guido
Barry KelleyTom Healy
Harry MorganAl Muntz
Jesse WhiteWillie Foltis
Horace McMahonSam Benton
Grant WithersScott Cameron

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