Film

The Man I Love

Name: The Man I Love
Genre: Drama, Romance, Action, Comedy
Released: 1929
Cast: Richard Arlen, Mary Brian, Olga Baclanova, Harry Green, Jack Oakie

Sports drama

William Wellman's first all-talking picture is a brisk, unpretentious boxing melodrama that swaps the ring for romantic entanglement. Richard Arlen plays a cocksure fighter caught between two women—one wholesome, one dangerously seductive—on the night before his championship bout. It's raw, fast-paced, and driven entirely by plot and performance rather than introspection. Perfect if you love early sound cinema's headlong energy and don't mind a script that knows exactly what it wants to happen next.

If you liked this

Raging Bull1980

Scorsese's masterly study of a boxer destroyed by his own nature, shot in black-and-white with ferocious intensity. De Niro's Jake LaMotta is all ego and violence, a cousin to Arlen's brawler.

But At over two hours and deeply interior, it's the opposite of light entertainment. The fight scenes are brutal rather than thrilling.

Body and Soul1947

Polonsky's noir about a boxer selling his soul, with John Garfield as a man torn between ambition and integrity. It has the same moral rot beneath the sports veneer, but with far more style.

But It's a chamber piece—claustrophobic and talky. The fight choreography won't impress if you're after spectacle.

The Set-Up1949

Robert Wise's taut seventy-three-minute boxing picture in real time. An aging fighter takes one last bout while his wife waits, terrified. It's all tension and economy, no wasted moment.

But Grim and fatalistic. There's no romantic subplot to lighten the mood, and the ending is not the one you'll hope for.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Man I Love

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Applause1929

Both are Wellman and Mamoulian contemporaries from the same year, both mesmerized by ambition and the price of desire in fast-talking America. Same energy, different arena.

Mamoulian's debut, also 1929, is about theatrical ambition and the cost of fame—a mother and daughter both in vaudeville. Like The Man I Love, it's early sound cinema reveling in its own speed and sex appeal, but it trades boxing for the theater world.

But The print quality is spotty, and the theatrical setting and all-female drama might feel remote if you're seeking a male-centered sports picture.

Champion1949

Kirk Douglas at his hungriest, playing a ruthless climber who'll betray anyone to keep his title. Dark, propulsive, and full of the kind of moral compromise that fascinated 1940s cinema.

But It's a heavy character study dressed as a sports picture. If you want rooting interest rather than moral inquiry, you'll feel let down.

Requiem for a Heavyweight1962

Kramer's devastating portrait of a washed-up boxer facing obsolescence, with Anthony Quinn and Mickey Rooney. It's tender without being sentimental, tragic without melodrama.

But Slow and elegiac. There's almost no boxing, and the emotional weight might feel heavy if you're seeking escape.

The Crowd Roars1932

Hawks' automotive equivalent: racing drivers, rivalry, jealousy, and a love triangle, all at breakneck pace. Cagney crackles with the same energy Arlen brings to the fight game.

But It's outdated in look and feels more dated than The Man I Love, even though it's only three years younger.

Gentleman Jim1942

Raoul Walsh directing Errol Flynn as boxer Jim Corbett—charming, vain, and willing to bend the rules. It's a lighter take on the boxing world, full of period color and swashbuckling.

But It's almost a comedy, and if you prefer your boxing pictures serious, the lightness will feel like evasion.

Iron Man1931

Archie Mayo's early talkie about a steelworker turned prizefighter, with Lew Ayres. It's got the same scrappy energy as The Man I Love and moves just as fast.

But It's been eclipsed by better films in the same vein. The performances feel theatrical rather than naturalistic by later standards.

Golden Boy1939

Rossen's adaptation of Odets' play, with William Holden as a violinist forced into the ring by his gangster mentors. A man divided between art and commerce, passion and survival.

But Stagey and earnest. If you're not invested in the ideological conflict, the plot feels like machinery moving predetermined pieces.

Foolish Wives1922

Baclanova plays the same femme fatale type in both, but here she's secondary to the plot. Stroheim makes her the gravity that everything orbits.

Stroheim's voluptuous silent epic of seduction and con artistry on the Riviera. Olga Baclanova here plays seductive temptress; in Stroheim's world, she'd be the entire universe. It shows what that archetype can do in a film entirely built around her.

But Seven-plus reels of silent melodrama. The pacing is glacial by sound-era standards, and the moralism is heavy-handed.

Pandora's Box1929

The same year, the same cultural moment obsessed with women who wreck men. Arlen's boxer succumbs to temptation; Pabst's camera dissects why temptation is irresistible—and fatal.

Pabst's German masterpiece, also from 1929, about Lulu—a woman whose sexuality destroys everyone around her. Silent, urgent, and far more interested in psychology than plot mechanics. No boxing ring, no romance subplot—just pure amoral desire.

But It's German Expressionism, completely silent, and morally pitiless. If you want Hollywood entertainment, you'll find this forbidding and slow.