The Big Chance

After "Knockout" Frankie "Rocky" Morgan KO's an opponent in a fixed fight, his manager, gambler Flash McQuaid, demands that he not go "steppin'" that night and train the next day, Sunday, so that the public will get the impression that he is an "iron man." McQuaid plans to have him win the next fight and then once his reputation is secure, lose to the welterweight champion so that they can make a lot of money by betting on the champ. Although he complains, Rocky agrees to do roadwork on Sunday in the town where McQuaid has set up training camp to establish him as the hometown boy and thus get the public excited. On Sunday, when ten-year-old Arthur Wilson sees Rocky, he excitedly joins him in his road work until his father, John Wilson, on the way to church with his wife and daughter Mary, sees Arthur and puts him into the car. After seeing Mary, Rocky decides to go to church also. Afterward, he and his trainer Tugboat are invited to the Wilson home for dinner. Two weeks later, Wilson, who originally thought that the arrival of the fighter would be demoralizing to the community, now allows Mary to date Rocky, and they go to a club the night before his next fight. When McQuaid learns about the date, he calls Babe, his mistress in New York, to come and romance Rocky because he fears that Rocky will confess the scheme to Mary. However, Rocky, after a heated argument, agrees not to see Mary if Babe stays away, and McQuaid calls her back and tells her to remain in the city. After Rocky wins his next fight, he plans to make $2,500 by taking a dive against the champ so that he can then quit and wed Mary. One day while running, Rocky sees Mary and, after saying that he can't explain why he hasn't seen her recently, makes plans to see her that night. McQuaid learns about the meeting and calls Babe to come. That night, Rocky calls Mary and tells her that McQuaid won't let him see her. She comes to see McQuaid, who tells her that Rocky's girl from the city just arrived and takes Mary to a window, where she sees Babe and Rocky sitting together with Babe's arm around his shoulder. When Rocky calls Mary to say goodnight, she hangs up on him. He then goes to her house, climbs a tree near her window and, after explaining about McQuaid's frame-up, asks her to marry him. As the branch breaks and he falls to the ground, Mary says, "Yes." On the day of the fight, after McQuaid makes a deal with the champ's manager for Rocky to take a dive in the fourth round, Rocky agrees and Arthur overhears them. Worried that Arthur could ruin their scheme, McQuaid has the boy kidnapped. Mary tells Rocky about Arthur's disappearance, and they overhear two of McQuaid's men reveal where Arthur is being held. After Rocky punches Arthur's guard onto a bed and into a wall, Arthur calls Rocky a cheat, and he is forced to admit the scheme to Mary. Although he tells her that he has no chance to win against the champ, she says that their future depends on his winning and convinces him that he now has a big chance to prove that he is as good as people betting on him think he is. During the fight, when the champ sees that Rocky is fighting to win, he tries to knock Rocky out. Although Rocky is knocked down many times, which causes Mary, who is listening over the radio, to wish he would stop, Rocky knocks down the champ in the seventh round. When McQuaid tries to throw in the towel, Tugboat slugs him. Rocky knocks the champ out and over the radio asks Mary to marry him right away. He thumbs his nose at McQuaid, and when Mary arrives, he embraces her, while Tugboat throws McQuaid out of the dressing room.