Gentleman Jim

Walsh's reputation is as an action director, but he was equally good as a period illustrator (witness the lazily loving The Strawberry Blonde). Here he has the best of both worlds, matching a rich evocation of San Francisco in the 1880s (perhaps a bit heavy on the Irish family brawls) with a vivid account of the pre-Queensberry fight scene, and capping a rumbustious sequence of bouts with a superbly shot version of the gruelling heavyweight championship match between Gentleman Jim Corbett and John L Sullivan in 1892. Lavish, lustrous and none too accurate historically, it's Hollywood at its cavalier best, with a perfectly judged performance from Flynn, brash yet engaging, as the social-climbing Corbett.