Kid Galahad

Looking to get back at a hood (Humphrey Bogart), a boxing promoter (Edward G. Robinson) and his girlfriend (Bette Davis) discover a bellhop (Wayne Morris) with a killer right.

Kid Galahad is a disappointment. Overlong and shackled by a wooden script, it amounts to little more than a B-grade melodrama. This is surprising, given talent involved. There’s Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis, and Humphrey Bogart in front of the camera and Michael Curtiz behind it. So what happened?

The biggest culprit is the script. Chock full of stilted dialog and predictable plot points, it’s slow and uninspiring. Where’s the crackling dialog? The pedal-to-the-metal pacing? Instead of breezing through its paces, Kid Galahad takes itself far too seriously, attempting to wring a melodramatic love saga out of a crime story. Part of the blame for this falls on Curtiz, who should have been merciless in the editing room, but instead turns in a 102-minute film that’s at least 10-15 minutes too long.

Not helping matters is the wardrobe department, which dresses star Bette Davis in some of the most unflattering outfids ever concocted—including several veils and a fez. Also not helping, is the inordinate amount of screen time given to Wayne Morris—who plays an unlikable sexist bully we’re supposed to root for, while a criminally under-utilized Humphrey Bogart sits idle.

In the end, Kid Galahad is a great example of a film that doesn’t live up to the sum of its parts. All of the key players would go on to better things, any of which would make for better viewing than this unfortunate failure.