"The Champ" has been described as an inverted women's film, because men in the film are not generally depicted at the top of the socio-economic ladder but are shown as a primary childcare provider. The famous final scene, in which the camera is thrust into Jackie Cooper's weeping face, has been compared to similar aggressive and intrusive camera work in classic motion pictures such as "Liebelei" (Max Ophüls, dir.; 1933) and "Broken Blossoms" (D.W. Griffith, dir.; 1919), and the films of Roberto Rossellini.