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Palooka

1934

4/5

Lupe Velez! William Cagney! And Jimmy Durante as himself!

This is a really fun one. It's your basic rags to riches to rags to riches story, and the character of Joe is pretty much as he is in the comic strip: not a great fighter, but has a lot of heart. There are some family squabbles throughout, but everyone is reconciled in the end. There isn't anything special about the story, but it's fun to watch, has good performances from the cast, and has well-written humor. Jimmy Durante steals the show at times (as he tends to), but not in a bad way. Baby Jimmy at the end with the ha-cha-cha was a bit much, but I still laughed.

A definite recommend.