Summary
In a narrative tapestry woven from the threads of vaudevillian artifice and pugilistic celebrity, The Title Holder navigates the parasitic periphery of fame. The plot centers on Chuck, a manipulative training-camp sycophant, who orchestrates a fraudulent romantic tableau between a desperate Follies aspirant and the reigning heavyweight champion, Jack. This scheme, designed to manufacture tabloid notoriety through a staged swoon and a strategically timed photograph, descends into a comedy of sartorial errors when Jack’s valet, Beans, incinerates the champion’s trousers. Forced into the borrowed garments of a destitute veteran thespian, Jack inadvertently evades the paparazzi’s lens. The resulting photograph captures the girl draped not over the champion, but over the opportunistic Chuck himself—a visual irony born of Jack’s genuine altruism as he fetches water for the 'fainting' starlet. The resolution transcends mere slapstick, evolving into a study of karmic redistribution: Jack preserves the old actor’s dignity by settling his arrears, thereby displacing Chuck from his strategic vantage point. The final stroke of misfortune for the antagonist arrives via a misidentified satchel, containing a small fortune that Chuck possesses without realizing its value until the champion reclaims it, leaving the schemer with nothing but his own discomfiture.
Synopsis
Chuck, an unscrupulous training-camp hanger-on, and a would-be Follies queen, plot to have the latter photographed with the Champion for publicity's sake. Meanwhile, Jack's pants having been burnt by the careless ironing of Beans, his valet, he borrows a pair from an old, penniless actor. After considerable arranging, Chuck's cameraman manages to get a photo of the girl - she has faked a faint - in the man's arms. He has photographed the wrong man, however, as Jack has rushed to get a glass of water for the girl, leaving her draped across Chuck's shoulder. Later, Jack manages to repay the old actor's kindness by saving him from being thrown out for non-payment of rent, much to Chuck's discomfiture, as he had been given the room in order to be near the champ for further deviltry. He is further discomfited to find that a satchel he has found and used as baggage to get into the hotel, contained $20,000. But this he finds out - after the champ has recovered his bag.
Review Excerpt
"The silent era possessed a unique alchemy, a capacity to transmute the raw physicality of cultural icons into the delicate language of pantomime. In The Title Holder, we witness the heavyweight titan Jack Dempsey navigating a landscape far more treacherous than the squared circle: the labyrinth of social climbing and photographic deception. Unlike the grim industrial realism found in The Bottom of the Well, this 1924 gem opts for a light-hearted yet incisive critique of the nascent celebrity cul..."
