The Harder They Fall

“What do you care what a bunch of bloodthirsty, screaming people think of you?  Do you ever get a look at their faces?  They pay a few lousy bucks hoping to see a man get killed!  The hell with them!  Think of yourself.  Get your money and get out of this rotten business.”

Unscrupulous boxing promoter Nick Benko (Rod Steiger) has a hot new find: Toro Moreno (Mike Lane), a hulking giant from South America.  The only problem is, Toro can’t fight worth a damn.  Benko hires former sportswriter Eddie Willis (Humphrey Bogart) to be his press agent, selling the fighter and building his reputation… a reputation built on fixed matches.  Willis is out of work and desperate, but how far will we go, how much will he compromise for the sake of a buck?

Mark Robson directed an earlier boxing noir, 1949’s Champion.  I rate this just a hair better.  It’s pretty predictable and sometimes hammers its morality angle a little too heavily, but it’s consistently engaging.  This is of course largely due to Bogart: his final role, but an excellent performance.  His vocal inflections and facial expressions help shape the moral dilemmas that might otherwise come off as too broad.  You really feel the struggle as his principles are being chipped away.

But it’s not just Bogart here.  Steiger’s sleaziness is pretty enjoyable, and Lane’s naive and somewhat vulnerable character works well, too.  Jan Sterling unfortunately doesn’t have much to do as Eddie’s wife.  What’s most interesting about the film is that it’s a boxing movie that doesn’t center on the boxer, which I think makes it quite unusual among contemporaries like Champion, The Set-Up and Body and Soul.  You get a pretty good feel for the business of the sport, as well as dirty tricks like “the chicken wire routine”.

The dialogue is tight and the look of the film is in the capable hands of Burnett Guffey.  The fights are generally well-staged and get pretty brutal towards the end.  An all-around well-crafted film that holds your attention without any major missteps.  Rating: Very Good (83)

IMDb