The Harder They Fall (1956 film)

Last updated
The Harder They Fall
The Harder They Fall Poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Mark Robson
Screenplay by Philip Yordan
Based onThe Harder They Fall
1947 novel
by Budd Schulberg
Produced byPhilip Yordan
Starring Humphrey Bogart
Rod Steiger
Jan Sterling
Cinematography Burnett Guffey
Edited by Jerome Thoms
Music by Hugo Friedhofer
Color process Black and white
Production
company
Distributed byColumbia Pictures
Release date
  • March 31, 1956 (1956-03-31)
Running time
109 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$1,350,000 (US) [1]

The Harder They Fall is a 1956 American boxing film noir directed by Mark Robson, produced and written by Philip Yordan, based on Budd Schulberg's 1947 novel. It was Humphrey Bogart's final film role. [2] It received an Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography, Black and White, for Burnett Guffey at the 29th Academy Awards.

Contents

Plot

Sportswriter Eddie Willis, broke after the newspaper he works for goes under, is hired as a PR man by boxing promoter Nick Benko. Nick has recruited Toro Moreno, a towering Argentinian. Despite Toro's lack of fighting ability, Nick plans to use his size as a gimmick to draw fans to his fights. Unbeknownst to Toro and his manager, Luís Agrandi, all of his fights are fixed to make the public believe that he is a talented boxer.

Eddie feels misgivings about the scheme, but the lure of a huge payday is enough to make him ignore the venture's dishonesty. He is able to spin Toro as a legitimate up-and-comer even when his first fight goes so disastrously wrong that the boxing commission threatens to open an investigation.

As Benko's entourage crosses the country in a bus bedecked with advertising for the fighter, Toro gradually becomes a ranked contender. Throughout the tour, Eddie handles negotiations with other boxing managers to ensure Toro's fights remain fixed.

Toro fights Gus Dundee, whose previous fight with champion Buddy Brannen has left him with a broken neck. After the Toro fight, Dundee collapses and dies. Toro is overcome with guilt, thinking he killed Dundee, and wishes to return to Argentina. In a last-ditch attempt to protect the upcoming bout with Brannen, Eddie tells Toro the truth: that Brannen was responsible for Dundee's condition, that Toro is no fighter, and that all his fights have been fixed.

During the Brannen fight, Toro sustains a brutal beating. Afterward, Eddie learns that Benko has sold Toro's contract to another manager. While Eddie gets his promised payout of $26,000, Benko has rigged the accounting so Toro earns only $49.07 out of over $1 million in ticket revenue. Ashamed of his part in the farce and not wanting to see Toro exploited any further, Eddie gives Toro the $26,000 and puts him on a plane to Argentina before Benko's men can stop them.

Though Benko threatens to harm Eddie, Eddie begins writing an exposé about the corruption.

Cast

Production

In early 1956, Bogart was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, and he died on January 14, 1957. Steiger recalled the actor's professionalism during production, even while coping with the disease:

"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'!" [3]

The film was released with two different endings: one where Eddie Willis [2] (inspired by sports writer Harold Conrad, according to Conrad [4] ) demanded that boxing be banned altogether, and the other where he merely insisted that there be a federal investigation into boxing. The video version contains the "harder" ending, while most television prints end with the "softer" message. Occasionally inaudible in a take, some of Bogart's lines as Willis are reported to have been dubbed in post-production by Paul Frees. [2]

Reception

Critical response

The film premiered at 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 [in the original novel]—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]

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 sued Columbia for $1.5 million in damages, alleging that the film was based on him and invaded his privacy. [8] The lawsuit was not successful. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Humphrey Bogart</span> American actor (1899–1957)

Humphrey DeForest Bogart, colloquially nicknamed Bogie, was an American actor. His performances in classic Hollywood cinema films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film Institute selected Bogart as the greatest male star of classic American cinema.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Primo Carnera</span> Italian boxer and professional wrestler (1906–1967)

Primo Carnera, nicknamed the Ambling Alp, was an Italian professional boxer and wrestler who reigned as the boxing World Heavyweight Champion from 29 June 1933 to 14 June 1934. He won more fights by knockout than any other heavyweight champion in boxing history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Budd Schulberg</span> American writer (1914-2009)

Budd Schulberg was an American screenwriter, television producer, novelist and sports writer. He was known for his novels What Makes Sammy Run? (1941) and The Harder They Fall (1947), as well as his screenplays for On the Waterfront (1954) and A Face in the Crowd (1957), receiving an Academy Award for the former.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Max Baer (boxer)</span> American boxer (1909–1959)

Maximilian Adelbert Baer was an American professional boxer and the world heavyweight champion from June 14, 1934, to June 13, 1935. He was known in his time as the Livermore Larupper and Madcap Maxie. Two of his fights were rated Fight of the Year by The Ring magazine. Baer was also a boxing referee, and had occasional roles in film and television. He was the brother of heavyweight boxing contender Buddy Baer and father of actor Max Baer Jr. Baer is rated #22 on The Ring magazine's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time.

Sam Jaffe was, at different points in his career in the motion picture industry, an agent, a producer, and a studio executive.

Robert Patsy Sacchi was an Italian-American character actor who, since the 1970s, was known for his close resemblance to Humphrey Bogart. He appeared in many films and TV shows playing either Bogart or a character who happens to look and sound like him. He was best known for his role in the 1980 film The Man with Bogart's Face.

To Have and Have Not is a 1944 American romantic war adventure film directed by Howard Hawks, loosely based on Ernest Hemingway's 1937 novel of the same name. It stars Humphrey Bogart, Walter Brennan and Lauren Bacall; it also features Dolores Moran, Hoagy Carmichael, Sheldon Leonard, Dan Seymour, and Marcel Dalio. The plot, centered on the romance between a freelancing fisherman in Martinique and a beautiful American drifter, is complicated by the growing French resistance in Vichy France.

<i>The Prizefighter and the Lady</i> 1933 film by Howard Hawks, W. S. Van Dyke

The Prizefighter and the Lady is a 1933 pre-Code Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer romance film starring Myrna Loy and the professional boxers Max Baer, Primo Carnera, and Jack Dempsey. The film was adapted for the screen by John Lee Mahin and John Meehan from a story by Frances Marion. Marion was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Story.

<i>Knock on Any Door</i> 1949 film by Nicholas Ray

Knock on Any Door is a 1949 American courtroom trial film noir directed by Nicholas Ray and starring Humphrey Bogart. The movie was based on the 1947 novel of the same name by Willard Motley. The picture gave actor John Derek his breakthrough role as young hoodlum Nick Romano, whose motto was, "live fast, die young, and have a good looking corpse."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frankie Carbo</span> American mobster

Paul John "Frankie" Carbo was an Italian-American New York City Mafia soldier in the Lucchese crime family who operated as a gunman with Murder, Inc. before transitioning into one of the most powerful promoters in professional boxing.

<i>Kid Galahad</i> (1937 film) 1937 film by Michael Curtiz

Kid Galahad is a 1937 American sports drama film directed by Michael Curtiz and starring Edward G. Robinson, Bette Davis, Humphrey Bogart and, in the title role, rising newcomer Wayne Morris. A boxing film, it was scripted by Seton I. Miller and distributed by Warner Brothers. It was remade in 1941, this time in a circus setting, as The Wagons Roll at Night, also with Bogart, and in 1962 as an Elvis Presley musical. The original version was re-titled The Battling Bellhop for television distribution in order to avoid confusion with the Presley remake.

<i>The Wagons Roll at Night</i> 1941 film by Ray Enright

The Wagons Roll at Night is a 1941 circus film directed by Ray Enright and starring Humphrey Bogart as traveling carnival owner Nick Coster, Sylvia Sidney as his girlfriend, and Eddie Albert as a newcomer who falls in love with Nick's sister, played by Joan Leslie. The screenplay is by Fred Niblo Jr. and Barry Trivers, and the film is based on a 1936 novel by Francis Wallace, first published as a serial in The Saturday Evening Post.

<i>Bullets or Ballots</i> 1936 gangster film by William Keighley

Bullets or Ballots is a 1936 American gangster film starring Edward G. Robinson, Joan Blondell, Barton MacLane, and Humphrey Bogart. Robinson plays a police detective who infiltrates a crime gang. This is the first of several films featuring both Robinson and Bogart.

San Quentin is a 1937 Warner Bros. drama film directed by Lloyd Bacon and starring Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, and Ann Sheridan. It was shot on location at San Quentin State Prison.

<i>Deadline – U.S.A.</i> 1952 film by Richard Brooks

Deadline – U.S.A. is a 1952 American film noir crime film and starring Humphrey Bogart, Ethel Barrymore and Kim Hunter, written and directed by Richard Brooks. It is the story of a crusading newspaper editor who exposes a gangster's crimes while trying to keep the paper from going out of business; he is also attempting to reconcile with his ex-wife.

<i>Men Are Such Fools</i> 1938 film by Busby Berkeley

Men are Such Fools is a 1938 American romantic comedy directed by Busby Berkeley and written by Norman Reilly Raine and Horace Jackson. The film stars Wayne Morris, Priscilla Lane, Humphrey Bogart, Hugh Herbert, Johnnie Davis, and Penny Singleton. The film was released by Warner Bros. on July 16, 1938. The movie is adapted from the novel by the same name, Men Are Such Fools, by Faith Baldwin.

Michael V. Lane was an American actor and professional wrestler.

<i>You Cant Get Away with Murder</i> 1939 film by Lewis Seiler

You Can't Get Away with Murder is a 1939 crime drama directed by Lewis Seiler, starring Humphrey Bogart and Gale Page, and featuring "Dead End Kid" leader Billy Halop. The film is from Bogart's period of being cast in B pictures by Warner Bros., before his breakthrough as a leading man in High Sierra two years later. The film is based on the play "Chalked Out" by Lewis E. Lawes.

<i>The Great OMalley</i> 1937 film by William Dieterle

The Great O'Malley is a 1937 American crime drama film directed by William Dieterle and starring Pat O'Brien, Sybil Jason, Humphrey Bogart, and Ann Sheridan. The 1925 silent version The Making of O'Malley starred Milton Sills, Dorothy Mackaill and Helen Rowland.

William J. Brown was an American boxing commissioner, referee, and promoter.

References

  1. ↑ 'The Top Box-Office Hits of 1956', Variety Weekly, January 2, 1957.
  2. 1 2 3 Erickson, Hal. The Harder They Fall at AllMovie
  3. ↑ Fantle & Johnson 2009, p. 140.
  4. 1 2 Thomlison, Adam. "Q: Was the Humphrey Bogart movie 'The Harder They Fall' based on anything?". TV Media. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  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. ↑ Thomas M. Pryor (May 1, 1956). "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". New York Times. p. 37.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.