Iron Man

A stiff and unengaging boxing drama from Browning that was presumably an assignment. Made in the same year as Dracula and a year before Freaks, the usual idiosyncrasies that could even be found in Fast Workers are entirely absent, and the lead performance is extremely weak. For completists only.

No, it's not an early super-hero movie, but one about boxing and a champ that loses his head in his success and gets taken for a ride by the people around him. It's a okay drama, but with very few high points. Lew Ayres plays the champ and in a way looks too weak to be a prize fighter. And as an actor gets over-shadowed by the presence Robert Armstrong who plays his manager. Sexy Jean Harlow is his girlfriend in this movie, but it's far from a memorable performance from her here.

The text isn't actually bad, but this is so leisurely directed it's a veritable snoozefest. And I say this with all due respect to Tod Browning, who would soon after direct the timeless Freaks.