Based on a Ring Lardner story, Champion is the film that elevated Kirk Douglas to stardom. He plays an implacable prize fighter, Midge Kelly, whose ruthlessness is both despicable and compelling. The scenes of boxing life, presented in a flashback story beginning on the night of Kelly's greatest triumph in the ring, are created with graphic intensity, while the matches themselves equal the force of Douglas' performance: both are brutal and uncompromising.