The Harder They Fall

For the episode of the BBC sitcom Porridge, see The Harder They Fall (Porridge).
The Harder They Fall

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Mark Robson
Produced by Philip Yordan
Screenplay by Philip Yordan
Based on The Harder They Fall
1947 novel
by Budd Schulberg
Starring Humphrey Bogart
Rod Steiger
Jan Sterling
Music by Hugo Friedhofer
Cinematography Burnett Guffey
Edited by Jerome Thoms
Production
company
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release dates
  • May 9, 1956 (1956-05-09) (United States)
Running time
 109 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Box office $1,350,000 (US)[1]

The Harder They Fall is a 1956 film noir directed by Mark Robson, featuring Humphrey Bogart in his last film. It was written by Philip Yordan and based on the 1947 novel of the same name by Budd Schulberg.

The drama tells a "thinly disguised à clef account of the Primo Carnera boxing scandal,"[2] with the challenger based on Carnera and the champ based on Max Baer; previously both Baer and Carnera had starred in The Prizefighter and the Lady (1933), in which Carnera is the world champ and Baer is his challenger. Bogart's character, Eddie Willis, is based on the career of boxing writer and event promoter Harold Conrad.

Plot

Sportswriter Eddie Willis (Humphrey Bogart) is broke after the newspaper he works for goes under. He is hired by crooked boxing promoter Nick Benko (Rod Steiger) to publicize his new boxer, a huge, but slow-witted and untalented Argentinian named Toro Moreno (Mike Lane).

Humphrey Bogart (Eddie Willis) and Mike Lane (Toro Moreno)

Unbeknownst to Toro and his friend and manager Luís Agrandi (Carlos Montalbán), all of his fights had been fixed to make the public believe that he is for real. After a short time, Benko gets Toro into a match against Gus Dundee (Pat Comiskey), the ex-heavyweight champ, before the title fight against Buddy Brannen (Max Baer). Dundee has agreed to lose the fight, as he is suffering headaches and neck pain from his last fight against Brannen. Dundee ends up collapsing in the ring and later dies of a brain hemorrhage in the hospital.

Feeling culpability in Dundee's death, Eddie hesitates in continuing his work in promoting Toro. Despite the misgivings of his wife (Jan Sterling), Benko has already convinced him otherwise due to Eddie wanting a huge pay-day. However, Toro feels guilty over Dundee's death and visits a priest (Paul Frees) who confirms Toro's feelings and agrees with him that he should go home to Argentina. Eddie tracks down Toro at the church and eventually convinces him to fight by telling him that this will be the last for both of them and that he will be able to take much money home to his parents.

In the meantime, Benko has planned for Toro to fight the heavyweight champ. Knowing Toro has no chance, Benko places large bets against his fighter. Toro thinks he can win, but Eddie shows him otherwise by having him knocked down by one of his handlers. Toro is then told how to lose without receiving a beating by staying away from Brannen with his long arm reach and to hug him when he is to close. But, Toro cares about what his friends and family will think about him, so he tries to fight convincingly while being brutally beaten in the process, suffering a broken jaw.

When Eddie goes to get the money owed to him and Toro, he finds out that Benko has rigged the accounting so that Toro ends up getting paid only $49.07. Ashamed, Eddie sends Toro home to Argentina with Eddie's own share of the proceeds, $26,000. When confronted by Benko, Eddie defies him, then begins writing an exposé about corruption in the boxing world.

Cast

Boxers appearing in the film:

Background

"Bogey and I got on very well. Unlike some other stars, when they had closeups, you might have been relegated to a two-shot, or cut out altogether. Bogey didn't play those games. He was a professional and had tremendous authority. He'd come in exactly at 9am and leave at precisely 6pm. I remember once walking to lunch in between takes and seeing Bogey on the lot. I shouldn't have because his work was finished for the day. I asked him why he was still on the lot, and he said, 'They want to shoot some retakes of my closeups because my eyes are too watery'. A little while later, after the film, somebody came up to me with word of Bogey's death. Then it struck me. His eyes were watery because he was in pain with the cancer. I thought: 'How dumb can you be Rodney'!"

—Rod Steiger fondly recalling his encounters with Humphrey Bogart on set of The Harder They Fall.[3]

The film was originally released with two different endings: in one, Eddie Willis demanded that boxing be banned altogether, while in the other, Willis merely insisted that there be a federal investigation of the prizefighting business. The video version contains the "harder" ending, while most television prints end with the "softer" message.[4]

The film was Bogart's last; he died early in 1957. In late 1955, during filming, he was already seriously ill with what would soon be diagnosed as esophageal cancer. Occasionally inaudible in some takes, some of his lines are reported to have been dubbed in post-production by Paul Frees, who also appears in the film as a priest.

Reception

Critical response

Mike Lane and Angela Stevens (as uncredited girl)

The film was entered into the 1956 Cannes Film Festival.[5]

The New York Times film critic, Bosley Crowther, liked the film, writing, "It's a brutal and disagreeable story, probably a little far-fetched, and without Mr. Schulberg's warmest character—the wistful widow who bestowed her favors on busted pugs. But with all the arcana of the fight game that Mr. Yordan and Mr. Robson have put into it—along with their bruising, brutish fight scenes—it makes for a lively, stinging film."[6]

More recently, film critic Dennis Schwartz wrote, "The unwell Bogie's last film is not a knockout, but his hard-hitting performance is terrific as a has-been sports journalist out of desperation taking a job as a publicist for a fight fixer in order to get a bank account ... The social conscience film is realistic, but fails to be shocking or for that matter convincing."[7]

Lawsuit

Primo Carnera later sued Columbia for $1.5 million for invasion of privacy due to the film.[8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 'The Top Box-Office Hits of 1956', Variety Weekly, January 2, 1957.
  2. ↑ Erickson, Hal. The Harder They Fall at AllMovie
  3. ↑ Fantle & Johnson 2009, p. 140.
  4. ↑ Erickson, Hal. Ibid.
  5. ↑ "Festival de Cannes: The Harder They Fall". festival-cannes.com.
  6. ↑ Crowther, Bosley, The New York Times, film review, May 10, 1956. Accessed: August 9, 2013.
  7. ↑ Schwartz, Dennis, Ozus' World Movie Reviews, film review, December 17, 2004. Accessed: August 9, 2013.
  8. ↑ CARNERA CHARGES STUDIO WITH FOUL: Ex-Boxer Sues Columbia for $1,500,000 Damages Over 'The Harder They Fall' Milland Signed for 'Stockade' Of Local Origin By THOMAS M. PRYOR Special to The New York Times.. New York Times (1923-Current file) [New York, N.Y] 01 May 1956: 37.

Sources

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