The Ring | |
---|---|
Directed by | Kurt Neumann |
Screenplay by | Irving Shulman |
Based on | 1953 novel The Square Trap by Irving Shulman |
Produced by | Frank King Maurice King |
Starring | Lalo Rios Gerald Mohr Rita Moreno Jack Elam |
Cinematography | Russell Harlan |
Edited by | Bruce B. Pierce |
Music by | Herschel Burke Gilbert |
Production company | |
Distributed by | United Artists [1] |
Release date |
|
Running time | 79 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
The Ring is a 1952 American film noir film directed by Kurt Neumann and based on a novel by Irving Shulman. It tells the story of a Mexican-American male who becomes a boxer, believing this kind of achievement will gain him respect among the English-speaking white majority. The film was shot in various locations in early 1950s Los Angeles. The film examines institutionalized bigotry. [2]
The film focuses on a young Mexican-American named Tomas Cantanios, who boxed under the pseudonym Tommy Kansas, a resident of Los Angeles's poor Chicano neighborhood. [3] He feels constrained due to his inability to thrive in a white-dominated society. Therefore, to achieve popularity, he becomes a professional boxer, achieving fame and recognition. He soon discovers that Anglos are only drawn to him for his sports reputation and that they still consider him an outsider because of his ancestry and skin color. In fact, the only two white men who treat him decently are his manager Pete and trainer Freddy. However, their tolerant behavior is based primarily on monetary gain. Tommy also is conflicted by his unconditional love for Lucy, the daughter of a punch-drunk bum.
The Ring is one of the early sports-centered films in Hollywood in which discrimination against Chicanos is presented. Its Mexicano/sports themes can be traced to the 1940s with films like The Girl from Monterrey .
Tommy Burns was a Canadian professional boxer. He is the only Canadian-born World Heavyweight Boxing Champion. The first to travel the globe in defending his title, Burns made 13 title defences against 11 different boxers, despite often being the underdog due to his size. Burns took on all challengers as Heavyweight Champion, leading to his legendary bout with the African American Jack Johnson. According to his biographer, Burns insisted, "I will defend my title against all comers, none barred. By this I mean white, black, Mexican, Indian, or any other nationality. I propose to be the champion of the world, not the white, or the Canadian, or the American. If I am not the best man in the heavyweight division, I don't want the title."
James Walter Carter was a world lightweight boxing champion three times between 1951 and 1955. His managers included Jimmy Roche and Willie Ketchum. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2000. Carter's loss to Lauro Salas in 1952 and his loss to Paddy DeMarco in 1954 were each named Ring Magazine upset of the year. His professional record was 80-31-9 with 32 knockouts.
Rocky V is a 1990 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the sequel to Rocky IV (1985) and the fifth installment in the Rocky film series. It also stars Talia Shire, Burt Young, Sage Stallone in his film debut, Tommy Morrison, and Burgess Meredith. In the film, a financially struggling Rocky Balboa (Stallone) agrees to train protégé Tommy Gunn (Morrison) at the gym once owned by Balboa's trainer, Mickey Goldmill (Meredith).
James Jackson Jeffries was an American professional boxer and world heavyweight champion.
Million Dollar Baby is a 2004 American sports drama film starring Hilary Swank. It is directed, co-produced, scored by and starring Clint Eastwood from a screenplay written by Paul Haggis, based on stories from the 2000 collection Rope Burns: Stories from the Corner by F.X. Toole, the pen name of fight manager and cutman Jerry Boyd. It also stars Morgan Freeman. The film follows Margaret "Maggie" Fitzgerald (Swank), an underdog amateur boxer who is helped by an underappreciated boxing trainer (Eastwood) to achieve her dream of becoming a professional.
Albert "Chalky" Wright was an American featherweight boxer who fought from 1928 to 1948 and held the world featherweight championship in 1941–1942. His career record was 171 wins, 46 losses and 19 draws. In 2003, Wright ranked #95 on The Ring magazine's list of the 100 Greatest Punchers of All-Time.
Charley White was an English-American boxer from Chicago, Illinois. Viewed by many as one of the best of his era, he fought from 1906 until 1923. He also lost a comeback match in 1930 against Henry Perlick, where he threw his famous left hook but Perlick countered with a right cross, knocking him down.
Isiah "Ike" Williams was an American professional boxer. He was a lightweight world boxing champion. He took the World Lightweight Championship in April 1945 and made eight successful defenses of the title against six different fighters prior to losing the championship to Jimmy Carter in 1951. Williams was known for his great right hand, and was named to The Ring magazine's list of 100 greatest punchers of all time as well as The Ring magazine Fighter of the Year for 1948. Williams was The Ring magazine's Fighter of the Year for 1948, was inducted into The Ring Boxing Hall of Fame, and was an inaugural 1990 inductee to the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
Champion is a 1949 American sports drama film noir directed by Mark Robson with a screenplay written by Carl Foreman based on a short story by Ring Lardner. The film stars Kirk Douglas, Marilyn Maxwell, Arthur Kennedy, Paul Stewart, Ruth Roman and Lola Albright. The story recounts the struggles of boxer "Midge" Kelly fighting his own demons while working to achieve success in the ring.
David Schultz "Davey" Moore was an American featherweight world champion boxer who fought professionally from 1953 to 1963. A resident of Springfield, Ohio, Moore was one of two world champions to share the name in the second half of the 20th century. The second, Davey Moore, boxed during the 1980s.
The Chacon vs. Limón series was four boxing fights between the American Bobby Chacon (1951–2016) and the Mexican Rafael Limón. It was a rivalry that made history in the sport. Many sports historians consider Chacon–Limón to be among boxing's fiercest rivalries, alongside Ali–Frazier, Ali–Norton, Barrera–Morales, Vázquez–R. Márquez, Gatti–Ward, Louis–Schmeling, Durán–De Jesus, Leonard–Durán, Leonard–Hearns and Pacquiao–J.M. Márquez to name a few.
Robert "Rocky" Balboa is a fictional character and the titular protagonist of the Rocky film series. The character was created by Sylvester Stallone, who has also portrayed him in eight of the nine films in the franchise. He is depicted as a working class or poor Italian-American from the slums of Philadelphia who started out as a club fighter and "enforcer" for a local Philly Mafia loan shark. He is portrayed as overcoming the obstacles that had occurred in his life and in his career as a professional boxer.
Arthur Benjamin Aragon was an American boxer in the lightweight class from New Mexico.
Fighting Tommy Riley is a 2004 independent American sports drama film. It tells the story of Tommy Riley and Marty Goldberg, a boxer and his trainer, as they work to secure a title shot for Tommy. Their plans are complicated by the unrequited feelings Marty develops for Tommy. When a big-time promoter seeks to acquire Tommy's contract, Tommy endangers his future career because of his loyalty to Marty. Marty, seeing only one way to free Tommy to take his shot, takes his own life.
Diosdado Posadas, better known as Speedy Dado, was a Filipino boxer who contended for the world flyweight, bantamweight, and featherweight championships. His managers included Frank Churchill, and Jesus Cortez.
Price of Glory is a 2000 American sports drama film written by Phil Berger, directed by Carlos Avila, and starring Jimmy Smits. The movie was nominated for several ALMA Awards in 2001. The film was shot in Huntington Park, Los Angeles, and Nogales, Arizona. The film was released by New Line Cinema on March 31, 2000.
The Crowd Roars is a 1938 American sports drama film directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Robert Taylor as a boxer who gets entangled in the seamier side of the sport. It was remade in 1947 as Killer McCoy, featuring Mickey Rooney in the title role. This film was not a remake of the 1932 film of the same name starring James Cagney. The supporting cast for the 1938 version features Edward Arnold, Frank Morgan, Lionel Stander, and Jane Wyman.
World in My Corner is a 1956 American film noir drama sports film directed by Jesse Hibbs and starring Audie Murphy, Barbara Rush and Jeff Morrow. The film was produced and distributed by Universal Pictures. It is one of the few non-Western films in which Murphy appeared.
Killer McCoy is a 1947 American sports drama film about a boxer starring Mickey Rooney. It is a remake of The Crowd Roars (1938). The picture was directed by Roy Rowland with a supporting cast featuring Brian Donlevy, Ann Blyth, James Dunn, Tom Tully, and Sam Levene.