Review: The Ring (1927)

Carnival sideshow boxer Carl Brisson meets his match when Ian Hunter steps up to take him on…and promptly beats him. Humiliated in front of his girl (Lillian Hall-Davis), Brisson finds out that the victor (Ian Hunter) is actually an Australian boxing champ. Seeing her man defeated causes Hall-Davis to switch her interest to Hunter, whilst still continuing to see Brisson. Brisson actually ends up working as sparring partner to Hunter, but it’s obvious that his true destiny lies in challenging Hunter for the big belt. That’s if he can win enough fights in the meantime to even get a shot.

 

Director Alfred Hitchcock (“The Lodger”, “The 39 Steps”, “Strangers on a Train”) scripted this 1927 boxing romance-drama himself (with only uncredited contributions by wife Alma Reville), and sadly it’s bottom-tier Hitchcock for me. I can’t figure out what his interest was here. Even by 1927 standards there’s not a lot going on here. It’s your standard two boxers rivalling for both professional glory and the girl. It’s far too stock to garner much interest or investment. Worse, the central love triangle doesn’t grab the audience. There isn’t enough of a connection with any of them. Also, in my opinion the wrong guy wins on both of those fronts. I get why it happens, but I don’t agree with it. I won’t reveal who, but the guy who wins is completely unlikeable, whilst the ‘loser’ takes both losses like a true champ. You struggle to figure out the appeal of one of the two blokes and therefore struggle to really relate to the girl, either. In fact, she’s a bit cruel and flaky if you ask me. The best thing by far is the performance by Ian Hunter as an Australian boxer, though he can’t save this thing single-handedly. This isn’t indicative of a filmmaker on the rise, it’s a filmmaker still learning on the job. There’s a couple of interesting shots in the boxing ring, but otherwise you won’t get much of an indication of its maker here.

 

Although it isn’t Hitchcock’s worst film, this boxing romance/drama doesn’t have much of anything going for it. It’s utterly forgettable despite solid work by a charismatic Ian Hunter.  

 

Rating: C

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Recovering junkie Odessa A’zion accompanies scuzzy boyfriend Drew Starkey on a break-in where all they find is a weird puzzle box. A’zion later opens the box and after some weird shit happens, A’zion and Starkey figure it might be a good idea to learn more about this messed up trinket. Goran Visnjic plays a millionaire who possessed the box before our protagonist nicked it.   Is there any point in remaking/rebooting “Hellraiser” when the 1987 adaptation of Clive Barker’s original text was written and directed by Barker himself? And is considered a horror classic? On evidence here, absolutely not. Directed by David Bruckner ( “The Signal” ) and scripted by Ben Collins ( “The Night House” ) and Luke Piotrowski (ditto) this is an entirely tedious affair. I took a long time to get on board with the 1987 “Hellraiser” , I have to admit. It was wildly imaginative and original, like a nightmare transplanted on to film. However, the characters were stone cold and left me similarly chilly t
Read more

Review: Boyka: Undisputed

Yuri Boyka (Scott Adkins) is out of prison and fighting for a living, with ambitions for the ‘Most Complete Fighter’ to make a real name for himself. However, after an opponent dies during a fight, the deeply religious Boyka starts to have a crisis of conscience. He tries to make amends with the man’s widow, which eventually pits him against a local gangster (Alon Moni Aboutboul, quite good). Anything with Scott Adkins will generally get me interested, and although this series peaked with the superlative “Undisputed II: Last Man Standing” , this 2017 film from director Todor Chapkanov (director of the SyFy movies “Copperhead” and “Ghost Town” ) is no slouch in a series yet to deliver anything less than solid entertainment. Producer Isaac Florentine is missed in the director’s chair, but Chapkanov gives us at the very least the series’ most dramatically ambitious entry, as Adkins’ ‘most complete fighter’ Yuri Boyka continues on his journey to redemption here. In this one, the
Read more

Review: Ninja 2: Shadow of a Tear

Scott Adkins is once again Casey, an American proponent of the martial art of Ninjutsu. When Casey’s pregnant Japanese wife (Mika Hijii) is rubbed out, he’s on a vengeance mission to find her killers. A friendly face, Nakabara (Kane Kosugi) turns up at the funeral, and suggests Casey come to Thailand to deal with his grief in another country. Casey initially declines, but eventually takes Nakabara up on his offer. However, his wife’s murder still haunts Casey, and with intel supplied by Nakabara, the trail eventually leads Casey to a brutal drug baron named Goro (Shun Sugata).   I was extremely disappointed with the first “Ninja” , but had heard that this 2013 sequel from director Isaac Florentine ( “Undisputed II: Last Man Standing” , “Undisputed III: Redemption” , “Ninja” ) was a damn near masterpiece of the martial-arts action movie genre. Having now finally gotten my hot little hands on it, I’d say the hype is a bit much, but this is unquestionably a much better film than the f
Read more