Swimming Upstream

Harold Fingleton, a vile, brutal harbor laborer, is obsessed with sports and macho toughness to the point of encouraging eldest son Harold to bully sensitive junior Tony, whom both abuse as 'sissy'. Only when he discovers Tony and his sweet, timid brother John have a talent for swimming, he turns away from boxer Harold to make them both toil in the pool beyond exhaustion, yet only John gets proud paternal praise. Tony is systematically ignored or belittled. After Tony proves himself the very best, Dad actually devotes to training John to steal his place on the road to the Olympics, thus over-straining their close fraternal bond.