Editing The Champ (1931 film) (section)

==Plot==
Andy "Champ" Purcell ([[Wallace Beery]]) is the former world heavyweight champion, now down on his luck and living in squalid conditions with his eight-year-old son "Dink" in [[Tijuana, Mexico]]. Champ attempts to convince promoters to set up a fight for him, but his efforts are stymied by his [[alcoholism]]. Dink is repeatedly disappointed by his father's irresponsible actions and frequent broken promises, but his devotion to his father never wavers.

Champ is also a compulsive gambler, another vice which he repeatedly promises he will surrender. After a winning streak, he fulfills a previous promise to buy Dink a horse, whom they name "Little Champ" and decide to race. At the track, Dink happens across a woman who, unknown to either of them, is his mother Linda. She is remarried to Tony, a wealthy man.

Linda and Tony observe Dink and Champ together and realize that Dink is her son. Champ allows Linda to see Dink, who accepts that she is his mother. But he feels no emotion toward her, as she has never been part of his life. Linda resolves to remove Dink from the miserable atmosphere in which he's growing up and have him live with her family.

Catching Champ during an all-night gambling binge, Tony asks him to turn Dink over so that Tony and Linda can put him into school. Champ refuses. The night of gambling ends with Champ having lost Little Champ, which devastates Dink. Champ asks Linda for money to buy the horse back, and she gives it to him. But he starts gambling again and loses the money Linda loaned him. He also winds up in jail, breaking Dink's heart once more.

Ashamed, Champ finally agrees to send an unwilling Dink to live with Tony and Linda. On the train ride home, Tony and Linda try their best to welcome Dink into their family. He does not dislike them, but he is consumed only by thoughts of his father. He runs away back to Tijuana, where he finds that Champ has a fight scheduled with the Mexican heavyweight champion.  When he sees Dink, Champ returns to good spirits, trains hard, and, for the first time, really does stay away from drinking and gambling. Champ is determined to win the fight, make Dink proud of him, and use his prize money to buy back Little Champ.

Tony and Linda attend the fight, bringing best wishes and assurances that they will make no further efforts to separate Dink from Champ. The match is brutal, and Champ is seriously injured. Dink and the others in his corner urge him to throw in the towel, but Champ refuses. He musters a last burst of energy and knocks out his opponent. After the fight, he triumphantly presents Little Champ to Dink. But after witnessing his son's overjoyed reaction, Champ collapses.

He is brought into his dressing room, where a doctor determines that his injuries are mortal. Champ urges Dink to cheer up and then dies. Despite the best efforts of others to calm him, Dink continually wails, "I want the Champ!" Finally, he spots Linda enter the room. Dink looks at her, cries out, "Mother!" and runs into her arms. She picks him up and he sobs, "The Champ is dead, Mama." She turns and carries him out of the room as he buries his face in her shoulder, crying.