Joe Louis full-length films and two shorts, including a starring role in the 1938 movie "Spirit of Youth", in which he played a boxer with many similarities to himself. In 1953, Robert Gordon directed a movie about Louis's life, "The Joe Louis Story". Filmed in Hollywood, it starred Golden Gloves fighter Coley Wallace in the role of Louis. In all, Louis made 25 defenses of his heavyweight title from 1937 to 1948, and was a world champion for 11 years and 10 months. Both are still records in the heavyweight division, the former in any division. His most remarkable record is that
The Rats of Tobruk (film) and dugouts were reconstructed in the studio of Commonwealth Film Laboratories. The Cronulla sandhills stood in for the African desert, and battle scenes were shot there at nighttime. Watson's Bay was used to shoot scenes of Australian soldiers embarking by boat. The New Guinea sequences were shot at Lamington Plateau, near the crash site of the 1937 Stinson plane. (That wreck had been discovered by Bernard O'Reilly who inspired Chauvel's later film, "Sons of Matthew".) Army photographers also shot real-life footage in Papua for use in the movie. Filipino boxer Tony Villa plays the Japanese soldier who fights Grant Taylor