The Harder They Fall
by Mark Robson
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Humphrey Bogart, Jan Sterling, Max Baer, Mike Lane, Rod SteigerDirector: Mark Robson
Cinematographer: Burnett Guffey
Editor: Jerome Thoms
Producer: Philip Yordan
Writer: Philip Yordan
Writer: Budd Schulberg
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown), Unknown; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); Japanese (Subtitled); Georgian (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Unknown
Format: Anamorphic, Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 109 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-01-21
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Sony Pictures
Movie Reviews of The Harder They Fall
Movie Review: AN OBVIOUSLY WORLD WEARY BUT STILL SAVVY BOGART CHARACTER IN THE GREAT ACTOR'S LAST FILM
Summary: 5 Stars
IN A NUTSHELL: THE HARDER THEY FALL IS SYMBOLIC OF MORE THAN JUST BOXING!
Humphrey Bogart is an aging, out-of-work newspaperman [Eddie Willis]. The newspaper for which he wrote a sports column for 17 years just closed. Because, as Willis puts it, "A man past his forties shouldn't have to run to make a living," he accepts what he sees as the inevitable and sells his soul to sleazy fight manager Nick Benko [Rod Steiger]. Willis's title is "Press Agent" for Benko's new greatest thing, "Toro Moreno" - 'The Wildman from the Andes'"!
BUT CAN TORO FIGHT? ---- [plot spoiler warning - below]
As Willis puts it to a dejected Toro after the simpleton fighter believed that he had recently killed a man in the ring, "You couldn't punch hard enough to bust an egg." Somehow everyone in the fighter's rather large and extravagant entourage, courtesy of the Nick Benko fighting club, was aware of the fighter's shortcomings except Toro Moreno himself. In this double deception, of the public and the fighter, Willis holds in his hands, by choice and by necessity, Toro's prospect for both fair treatment and a safe return to his South American homeland.
"The Harder They Fall" in this way illustrates that professional boxing, like all pro sports, is a microcosm of society. Therefore, we see how need and desperation, that is found in society as a whole and here embodied in Bogart's Willis (the unemployed sportswriter), infects professional sports, specifically boxing in this case and Willis, Toro, and Benko's gang in particular.
WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT? Argentinean fighter Primo Carnera - REAL-LIFE SCANDAL
Nick Benko leads an over-the-top, fight-fixing gang in a fictionalized and hyperbolized world to press home the point of the film. Boxing is something that is pure evil, according to the film, and it ends with something along those lines coming off Willis's typewriter.
THE CAST:
Humphrey Bogart - Eddie Willis
Rod Steiger - Nick Benko
Jan Sterling - Beth Willis
Mike Lane - Toro Moreno
Max Baer - Buddy Brannen
Jersey Joe Walcott - George
Edward Andrews - Jim Weyerhause
Harold J. Stone - Art Leavitt
Carlos Montalban - Luis Agrandi
Nehemiah Persoff - Leo
Jack Albertson - Pop
Pat Comiskey - Gus Dundee
BOTTOM LINE: I SAW THIS FILM 50 YEARS AGO & I'VE NEVER FORGOTTEN IT!
This is one of those rare films where the acting makes the film. Sure it has a good script, contains interesting and well-done action sequences, and boasts great actors and character actors. However, what keeps this film fresh after 50 years is the honest and intense directness of Bogart and Steiger which seems to have lifted the entire film up a few notches in terms of its dramatic impact, which is why I found it so memorable.
ABOUT THE DVD: REMASTERED & WIDESCREEN
New Digitally Remastered Transfer in Widescreen is top-notch, and contains about 3 minutes of partially deleted scenes that were missing from the previously available video [vhs edition].
Nice original theatrical trailer plus promotional trailers for "The Greatest" and "On The Waterfront".
Photo montage of Humphrey Bogart.
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