Keep Punching (1939 film)
1939 film
Keep Punching is a 1939 film about boxing. Its primary character is Henry Armstrong (born Henry Jackson). Unlike most films of the era, its cast was composed entirely of African Americans.
The film includes Whitey's Lindy Hoppers (Lindy Hop) performing the much imitated Big Apple Routine. A film clip of the dance scene was also released as the short “Jittering Jitterbugs” in 1943 showing the Big Apple routine choreographed by Frankie Manning and a Jitterbug dance competition that followed in the film.
Plot
Golden Gloves champion Henry Jackson turns professional and gets scheduled into a tough match. Days before the match, he finds an old school friend of his, Frank Harrison, unaware that Frank is betting heavily on his loss. Frank sets Henry up with beautiful Jerry Jordan, who is instructed to get him drunk and impede him in any way possible, due to Frank blackmailing her. On the day of the fight she slips him a sleeping drug.
Cast
It was directed by John Clein and was the first screen appearance of Canada Lee.
The public source identifies “Keep Punching (1939 film)” as 1939 film. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Keep, Punching and film.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q85486582. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1939 and 1943.
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This entry incorporates text from “Keep Punching (1939 film)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.