It is no small feat to steal a movie right out from under both Jon Voight and Faye Dunaway in their primes, and yet little 9 year-old Ricky Schroder does exactly that in the aforementioned heart-breaking final scene. To watch the inconsolable Schroder pleading so earnestly, so desperately with the dead body of his father to “Get up! Get up, Champ!” without crying requires sterner constitutions and harder hearts than ours. (And that’s saying something.)

Sadder Day Night Special: “The Champ” – The Pessimist

“epic schmaltz-fest”

That scene is almost as sad as outlawing catnip.