Humphrey Bogart is a sports writer who is hired as a publicity agent for the Argentinian behemoth, Toro Moreno, a new boxer being promoted by the greedy, unfeeling, and corrupt Rod Steiger and his squad of thugs.
Bogart needs the money and does the job. Moreno is not too quick on the uptake. He thinks he's as good as the newspapers say. What he doesn't know, but everyone else does, is that all of his fights are fixed or set ups with broken down, aging brawlers. Moreno himself cannot hit a lick nor take one.
The night before the championship fight in New York, with Moreno filled with guilt thinking wrongly that he killed his last opponent, Bogart introduces him to the facts, with the aid of Jersey Joe Walcott. Moreno now knows that he can't fight, yet he is facing the world champion (Max Baer) who fully intends to butcher him.
Does Moreno give up? Does he take his dinero and run back to Argentina? Does he chicken out and stay away from Baer, and cling to him to shield himself, in the ring? Are you kidding? The point of the movie is that boxing is a brutal sport, fought by men with no future and managed by crooks. How dare they make such an argument? Why boxing is a clean sport, run according to the strictest code of ethics. Ask anybody. Ask Don King.
It's a decent movie for its period. It's not really as shocking as it once must have been, but everyone was about as empty headed as Toro Moreno in the 1950s. It takes a lot to shock us nowadays. But, in the spirit of the times, everything is spelled out for the viewer -- who corrupts the game and how. Maybe it's just as well because there are a lot of non-boxing fans out there who need those instructions.
Rod Steiger is a standout in the role of the corrupt manager. His character is named Nick Benko. Could a person with such a name ever be any good. My God, he overacts outrageously. He whines, pleads, threatens, sweats constantly, wiping his face with a soggy hankie. Bogart looks pained throughout. He was seriously ill and died soon after the movie was released. Toro Moreno is played by somebody with the unlikely name of Mike Lane. He was evidently born in Washington, DC, but gives a first-rate impression of a clumsy mammoth from Argentina. During his fixed fights, his technique is to pound his opponent into the canvas with descending blows on the head and shoulders, like a child using a hammer. He can't act but doesn't have to. He's a walking cartoon, a pituitary gland run amok, about eight feel tall and built like a cistern. His ears are huge and in the ring they flap like those of an elephant. Jan Sterling is the stalwart and supportive wife.
Not very sophisticated movie making but not bad either.
Bogart needs the money and does the job. Moreno is not too quick on the uptake. He thinks he's as good as the newspapers say. What he doesn't know, but everyone else does, is that all of his fights are fixed or set ups with broken down, aging brawlers. Moreno himself cannot hit a lick nor take one.
The night before the championship fight in New York, with Moreno filled with guilt thinking wrongly that he killed his last opponent, Bogart introduces him to the facts, with the aid of Jersey Joe Walcott. Moreno now knows that he can't fight, yet he is facing the world champion (Max Baer) who fully intends to butcher him.
Does Moreno give up? Does he take his dinero and run back to Argentina? Does he chicken out and stay away from Baer, and cling to him to shield himself, in the ring? Are you kidding? The point of the movie is that boxing is a brutal sport, fought by men with no future and managed by crooks. How dare they make such an argument? Why boxing is a clean sport, run according to the strictest code of ethics. Ask anybody. Ask Don King.
It's a decent movie for its period. It's not really as shocking as it once must have been, but everyone was about as empty headed as Toro Moreno in the 1950s. It takes a lot to shock us nowadays. But, in the spirit of the times, everything is spelled out for the viewer -- who corrupts the game and how. Maybe it's just as well because there are a lot of non-boxing fans out there who need those instructions.
Rod Steiger is a standout in the role of the corrupt manager. His character is named Nick Benko. Could a person with such a name ever be any good. My God, he overacts outrageously. He whines, pleads, threatens, sweats constantly, wiping his face with a soggy hankie. Bogart looks pained throughout. He was seriously ill and died soon after the movie was released. Toro Moreno is played by somebody with the unlikely name of Mike Lane. He was evidently born in Washington, DC, but gives a first-rate impression of a clumsy mammoth from Argentina. During his fixed fights, his technique is to pound his opponent into the canvas with descending blows on the head and shoulders, like a child using a hammer. He can't act but doesn't have to. He's a walking cartoon, a pituitary gland run amok, about eight feel tall and built like a cistern. His ears are huge and in the ring they flap like those of an elephant. Jan Sterling is the stalwart and supportive wife.
Not very sophisticated movie making but not bad either.