The Big Timer: A Boxer, A Boss, and a Whole Lot of 1931 Attitude

Should you bother?

If you like movies that move fast, talk faster, and don't worry too much about being realistic, you might get a kick out of The Big Timer. It’s for the folks who enjoy those early 30s pre-code vibes where everyone is slightly cynical and nobody is quite who they say they are. If you’re looking for a serious boxing film or anything with actual fight choreography, skip it. You will probably find the romance a bit clunky and the boxing scenes mostly laughable.

Ben Lyon is playing the same kind of lovable lug he played in The Hot Heiress, and honestly, he’s fine. He’s got that easy-going charm that makes you forget he’s supposedly a prize fighter who takes punches for a living. Constance Cummings is the real reason to keep watching, though. She plays the manager role with a kind of sharp, clipped energy that feels like she’s trying to drag the rest of the movie into the future.

The pacing is… well, it’s a 74-minute movie that feels like it’s trying to run a marathon in ten minutes. Scenes end abruptly. Sometimes they don't even end, they just sort of dissolve into the next room. There’s a specific moment where a conversation about a contract just drops off a cliff, and we’re suddenly in a different part of the city. It’s jarring, but kind of refreshing in a weird way.

The Fight Game (Or lack thereof)

The boxing scenes are basically two guys standing in a ring doing a weird little dance. Don't go looking for grit. It reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in Naughty Mary Brown, where the plot is mostly just an excuse to get people into rooms together to argue. The way Lyon and Tom Dugan bounce off each other is genuinely funny, though. They have that shorthand that only comes when two actors have been stuck in the same studio lot for way too long.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of The Big Timer (1932) through its definitive frames.

There is a lot of smoking. Everyone is constantly lighting a cigarette, taking one puff, and putting it out. It’s a very 1931 detail that I couldn't stop noticing. Why even light it? Maybe it’s just something to do with their hands when the script runs out of things for them to say.

Odd things I wrote down:

• The background extras in the gym look like they haven't seen a real fight in their entire lives.
• The hats. Everyone has a very specific, very stiff hat on at all times.
• The dialogue sounds like it was written by someone who had only ever heard about boxing in a dream.

It isn't a masterpiece. It isn't even a particularly good movie if you sit down and look at the plot holes. But it’s got that scrappy, low-budget desperation that I kind of love in these old studio fillers. It feels like a movie made in a hurry by people who were just trying to get through the work week, and there’s a certain honesty to that. It’s definitely more fun than Wages for Wives, though that’s not a high bar to clear.

If you’re having a rainy Sunday and want to watch something that doesn't demand your soul, stick with this one. Just don't expect to remember much about it by Tuesday.