Perfect cast and a good story

hyped garbage

Disappointment for a huge fan!

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Metro trods a Warners-like path in this boxing B, trafficking in the ring and the underclass, and even importing Warners contractee Guy Kibbee,as a down-and-out manager who uncovers a possible find in a young Dan Dailey, a Swede in a Brooklyn boarding house, populated entirely by boxers, until Jean Rogers moves in. She's the niece of Connie Gilchrist, who runs the joint, and besides being a looker, she has a nice Ann Sheridan-like toughness. Dailey, who's charming, Swedish Chef accent and all, woos her, but she's more drawn to his sparring pal Bill Lundigan,leading to the inevitable climax where the two have to have it out in the ring. It moves at a decent clip, and the dialog's tastier than in some other similar yarns, thanks to Fay and Michael Kanin. Some good character actors line the periphery, like Sam Levene and Rags Ragland, and Dailey and Lundigan punch and fake and feint well enough. A perfectly OK time-waster, it turns up now and then on TCM.

Aside from having a pretty impressive cast for a B-movie, there isn't a whole lot to distinguish "Sunday Punch" from the crowd. It's not a bad film but it's really not all that great a film either--plus the plot seems a bit clichéd.The film is set at a rooming house for boxers. In other words, no women are allowed. Despite this, the landlady invites Judy (Jean Rogers) to stay there---and naturally this causes problems with some of the boxers. In particular, the handyman who becomes a boxer (Dan Dailey) and up and coming boxer, Ken (William Lundigan) are smitten with her. But, with an unscrupulous manager (J. Carrol Naish), the guys are manipulated and eventually the two friends are pushed into a match together. Who gets the girl and who goes on to the championship bout? See the film and see for yourself...or not.While there's nothing terrible about the film, hearing Dan Dailey speaking with a Scandinavian accent was kind of funny. Overall, a slightly sub-par time-passer and nothing more.

Sunday PUNCH was a B-film that played the lower half of double bills when released in 1942, pleasant enough fluff that was only passable as entertainment even then.But fans of WILLIAM LUNDIGAN got to see him in a starring role for a change and pretty JEAN ROGERS got a chance to show that she was someone to watch even if her career never got into high gear. She's photographed with beautiful, glossy MGM close-ups, the kind usually reserved for their top stars, but none of the familiar material here is up to the standards of an A-film.Not even with a supporting cast that includes GUY KIBBE, CONNIE GILCHRIST, LEO GORCEY, SAM LEVENE and, in an unusual character role as a Norwegian janitor who wants to become a fighter, DAN DAILEY (billed as Dan Dailey, Jr.), as a guy who has a "Sunday punch" as his ticket to a boxing career. The fight scenes are standard stuff and neither Lundigan nor Dailey looks as though they could go more than two rounds in an actual fight.Summing up: A pleasant enough trifle, but nothing to get excited about.

The photography in this movie is beautiful. That is the first thing you notice. Paul Vogel lights this in high contrast shadows, so much so that you think you're looking at a film noir as shot by Hurrell. The actors are all deep in character: even Guy Kibbee is restrained and excellent. But there are so many odd decisions here -- Dan Dailey equipped with a fake Norwegian accent, William Lundigan, as stiff as a washboard, Jean Rogers predatory *and* whiny, plus Rags Ragland and Leo Gorcey as comedy relief -- that is to say intended comic relief.The issue is that this is an effort to do STAGE DOOR at a boxing gym, and someone -- probably the producer -- insisted on adding gloss to every shot. And whoever did the final screenplay seems to have been working from a novel from which he hated to cut any character.Director Millar had a long and spottily distinguished career. His last effort was a TV Movie titled GOLDIE AND THE BOXER GO TO Hollywood in 1981. Sounds a lot like this one.