The Harder They Fall

Humphrey Bogart is truly brilliant in this, his last film. "The Harder They Fall" (1956) is a stunning indictment of the boxing profession. The film also marks Humphrey Bogart's final performance as a former sports writer turned publicist — and he's in good company. Bogie's scenes with Rod Steiger, Jan Sterling and Mike Lane (as the giant Argentinian boxer) are truly memorable.

In addition to Bogart's fantastic performance, Rod Steiger chews the scenery nicely as a corrupt manager. Their scenes together are really well done, and very well written. I particularly enjoyed the scene after the big fight where Bogart presses to find out how much their fighter will ultimately wind up for getting so badly beaten in the ring.

There are probably a good dozen very, very good fight films, and this belongs to their number. The tension in the film derives from the ultimate conflict between Bogart's inherent decency and Steiger's unmitigated exploitativeness. The two had great on screen chemistry in their scenes together. They employed very different acting styles, Steiger being one of the first Method actors to enjoy success in the movies. Bogart was strictly old school, but he not only held his own, he dominated their scenes together.

Humphrey Bogart's last movie was a triumph! His acting was terrific! Excellent movie!

Eddie Willis was once a top sports writer, but now he is down on his luck and searching for work. He gets a proposition from dodgy promoter Nick Benko, he is to write up sensationalist press for Benko's new discovery, the gigantic Toro Moreno. Trouble is is that Moreno is a poor boxer, powder puff punches and a glass jaw. But each fight is fixed by Benko and along with Eddie's press writings, this propels Moreno to being a household name, thus a crack at the heavyweight title is in the offering. However, Eddie starts to feel conflicted the more the story unfolds and just around the corner is a tragedy that will shape the destinies of everyone who is involved.

This was sadly to be the last film from the great Humphrey Bogart. He would pass away the following year, but thankfully this Mark Robson directed piece proves to be a fitting swansong. He puts depth to his portrayal of Willis and his face off scenes with Rod Steiger's Benko are a real acting joy to observe. The film itself {great scripting from Phillip Yordan} is a scathing and critical look at the boxing circuit, corruption, greed and a scant care for human life come bubbling to the surface, with Burnett Guffey's stark black & white photography adding grime to the nasty underbelly. Real life {and one time heavyweight champion of the world} boxer Primo Carnera sued {and lost} Columbia because The Harder They Fall's story was close enough to his own life story, that in itself makes this film's core story all the more interesting. 8/10

I just saw this film and now realize that Sly Stallone must have watched it about a hundred times before staging the fight scenes in Rocky – he even recreated the subtle touch when Toro's coach cuts his eyelid in the fight to release the built-up blood (except in this film, you only see him go for the eye with a scalpel but don't see him actually cut it as you do in Rocky). The final fight at the end of this movie is THE most gruesome fight ever filmed. Stallone tried to capture this in Rocky, but it has nowhere NEAR the realism of the fight in The Harder They Fall. This is partly because it is shot in black and white, which for some reason makes everything seem more gruesome than color; partly because of the foggy, staggering way it is shot, as if you are seeing the punches through the groggy boxer's eyes; and partly because the actor who played Toro was not a star like Stallone or DeNiro in Raging Bull – they could make him look like a true wreck, a distorted, disfigured wreck – without fear of diminishing his "star" quality handsomeness.

My favorite line in this movie is when Bogart angrily asks Steiger how he'd like to have his jaw broken like Toro's. Steiger's henchmen immediately start to converge on Bogart, who says, "He didn't have 5 guys in the ring with him." It's a great line that brings home how the powerful are protected from the very pain they inflict on others.

The movie's title, from the old saying, "the bigger they are, the harder they fall," is also very ironic, because the "big" guys – Steiger and the corrupt fight backers – actually never "fall" – it is only the "little" guys, like Toro, who fall the hardest.

By the way, it was really spooky seeing Max Baer himself re-create his historic fight with Primo Carnera in this film, which is based on Max Baer's historic fight with Primo Carnera! You can see a film of this 1934 fight online, in which Baer knocks Carnera down 11 times in 11 rounds. By round 2, Baer was actually chasing Carnera around the ring, and at least 3 times he knocked him down so hard that he actually fell on top of him!

Here's a film that tries to deal with corruption, of how the fighting game is built around construction, of the ways results are fixed, all the lies and all the tricks, as the boxers follow mostly, their instructions. The performances of all is quite top drawer, Toro Moreno by Mike Lane makes quite a score, Rod Steiger's crooked Nick, is aggressive and so slick, but Humphrey Bogart is the one you just adore. So if you're looking for a film that works today, that's packed with cheats, and layered with foul play, that marks the ending of a story, an actor's sublime oratory, light a cigarette, but do find an ashtray.

"The Harder They Fall", based on the brutally real novel by Budd Schulberg, presents us with an aspect of the boxing world that no one talked about in those days. The sport was dominated by the racket men that made tremendous profits at the expense of the young pugilists that came from poor backgrounds.

Mark Robson, the director, was a man that understood that underworld well. He had already directed the excellent "Champion", so he proved to be a natural for taking the helm of this movie. Mr. Robson, worked as an editor for Orson Welles and knew what worked in the cinema. Working with the cinematographer Burnett Guffey, a man who was one of the best in the business, Mr. Robson created a film that was a ground breaker. New York City in the fifties is the background for the story that was shot in real exteriors that added a drama to the film.

This was the last film in which Humphrey Bogart made. In fact, Mr. Bogart shows signs of the illness that would take his life after the film was completed. Humphrey Bogart's Eddie Willis is a man that clearly wants to be fair to the poor boxer, Toro, from Argentina, who is being manipulated by the bad guys under the evil Benko. This was one of the best appearances of Mr. Bogarts in the movies.

The other surprise in the film is the portrayal by Rod Steiger of the mob man that wants to use Toro for his own illegal gains. Rod Steiger stood in sharp contrast with Humphrey Bogart. Being a method actor, his technique was entirely different from the one of his co-star. Yet, when both men are seen on the same frame, one can sense two great actors doing what they did best.

The interesting cast put together for the film made it better than it could have been. Under Mark Robson's direction we see a lot of New York based actors in the background. One would have liked to see more of Jan Sterling, who plays Eddie's understanding wife Beth. Also in the cast, Nhemiah Persoff, Jack Albertson, Max Baer, Jersey Joe Walcott, Mike Lane, Carlos Montalban, make good contributions to the film.

The boxing sequences are masterfully staged by Mr. Robson, who gives us a ringside seat to watch the matches. This film shows the director at the top of his craft.