Review: The Harder They Fall

Bogey plays an aging sportswriter and occasional press agent who reluctantly accepts a nicely paid gig from mob-connected promoter Rod Steiger (creating his own contender!- sorry, had to do it...I need help), to promote his new find; a  lunkheaded Argentinean behemoth played by Mike Lane. Physically he looks unstoppable, but truth is, he’s completely useless in the ring once that bell sounds (Kinda like WWE’s The Great Khali, but enough about my favourite pastimes). But with fixed fight after another, and Bogey’s shameless promotion, the big lug starts to believe in himself. Bogey, meanwhile, starts to have a crisis of conscience, seeing how poorly treated the naive fighter is, and watching a doomed fight between Lane and one-time champ Gus Dundee (Pat Comiskey), who has been warned against fighting after taking a pounding from brutal champ Max Baer (pretty much playing himself, as a major SOB). Jan Sterling is Bogey’s quietly disapproving wife, Harold J. Stone is his morally outraged colleague, and Nehemiah Persoff excels as the none-too-trustworthy bookkeeper for Steiger.

Shattering 1956 Mark Robson (whose career has been varied in occupation, film subject, and quality- editor on “Citizen Kane”, director of “Bedlam” and the awful “Valley of the Dolls”) boxing picture, is almost a film noir and cynically presents the world of boxing as seedy, criminal, and filled with low-lives, has-beens and gangsters. In fact, if it weren’t for a slight similarity in subject and tone to “Night and the City” (a near-masterpiece that also mixed gangsters and fighting, wrestling this time), it might’ve been a classic (there are similarities to another masterpiece, “Sweet Smell of Success” as well).

Bogey, looking somewhat aged in his final role, is spot-on, but Method actor Steiger is an absolute powerhouse, and Persoff is terrific in support, too. Shame that more effort wasn’t put into Sterling’s underwritten role, though. She’s too good an actress to be treated in such a way. The screenplay is by Philip Yordan (“Broken Lance”, “Johnny Guitar”), from a Budd Schulberg (“On the Waterfront”) novel. This’ll have boxing fans crying like babies for weeks, it’s really revolting stuff in many ways and really makes you take a hard look at the so-called ‘sweet science’.

Rating: B+