Directed by Robert Wise.
Robert Wise has directed some of my favorite Film Noir, This film, Born to Kill, The House on Telegraph Hill, Odds Against Tomorrow, Bio Noir I Want to Live!, Western noir Blood on the Moon, and Sci-Fi Noir The Day the Earth Stood Still.
The Cinematography was by Milton Krasner Scarlet Street, The Dark Mirror, and The Accused. Film Editing by Roland Gross, Art Direction by Albert S. D'Agostino, and Jack Okey, Set Decoration by James Altwies and Darrell Silvera.
The film is not only a Boxing Noir masterpiece but also a masterpiece of cinematography, editing set design and art direction. It's a showcase of "Studio Arts," the only on location footage was at the double (Pacific Electric Red Car and auto) North Hill Street twin Tunnels and it's overlook. It used to be at the Northeast end of Bunker Hill, Los Angeles. The studio artists create a magical reality for boxing similar to what they did with The Narrow Margin an all studio set "Railroad" Noir with stock footage inserts.
The film stars Robert Ryan as Bill "Stoker" Thompson, Audrey Totter as his wife Julie Thompson, George Tobias as Tiny Stoker's manager, Percy Helton as Red his trainer, Alan Baxter as mob bookie Little Boy, Wallace Ford as the Paradise Alley Athletic Club locker room supervisor. Hal Baylor as boxer Tiger Nelson, Darryl Hickman as newbie boxer Shanley, Kevin O'Morrison as Moore, James Edwards as Luther Hawkins, David Clarke as Gunboat Johnson, Phillip Pine as Tony Souza, and Edwin Max as Danny the weaselly fixer who works for Little Boy, and Frank Richards as Bat the punchy ex boxer who peddles Knockout Magazine and other boxing rags outside the arena.
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| Robert Ryan as Bill "Stoker" Thompson |
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| Audrey Totter as Julie Thompson |
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| Percy Helton as Red |
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| George Tobias as Tiny |
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| Edwin Max as Danny |
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| Alan Baxter as Little Boy |
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| James Edwards as Luther Hawkins |
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| David Clarke as Gunboat Johnson |
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| Darryl Hickman as Shanley |
I usually shy away from well known Noir, simply because there's a lot have been written about them and you feel that you probably can't bring much more to the table. But I'll give my two cents.
I didn't know, until I did a bit of research, that this film was based on a book length narrative poem. A poem that was written by Joseph Moncure March. It was published in 1929. It was a gritty look, told in syncopated rhyming couplets, at the underbelly of boxing and the shadowy symbiosis that boxing has with the underworld. Now March's poem was, in turn, inspired by a painting below, by James Chapin. He was the father of jazz musician Jim Chapin and grandfather of folk singer Harry Chapin (who by the way has himself written some great "aural" noir songs).
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| James Ormsbee Chapin |
"Chapin's portrait shows a stolid black figure sitting in his corner between rounds and staring meaninglessly into the ring, eyebrows drawn down low on a much-pummeled face, boxing gloves reposing gently on his knees. Meanwhile, his middle-aged white handler leans back on the ropes in a carefree, hard-to-read posture is he gesturing to some pal in the crowd? Smiling at the mockery of the fight racket? Just enjoying the moment and the way the light gleams on his pomaded hair? Whatever Chapin's intended meaning, March seems to have taken from the painting, so that later he could put it into his poem, a sharp awareness of the distance between those who fight and those who watch the fighting; those nakedly exposed and those covering something up." (Jefferson Hunter, 'Poem Noir Becomes Prizefight Film', The Hudson Review)
The Set-Up is a great little boxing Film Noir with a lot and I mean a lot of atmosphere.
This tale takes place in Paradise City in it's small town "tenderloin district" somewhere in Noirsville. Noirsville is a dark dreamscape that exits in that twilight between reality and nightmare. This particular tenderloin has a cusp on the edge of the real Bunker Hill.
Bill "Stoker" Thompson aging fighter at 35, has cheap a flop in the residence "Cozy Hotel," that he shares with his loving wife Julie. Julie has been a supporting wife, trying to help Bill live his dream. However for Julie, living off caned soup and fried burgers is getting a bit stale, and she is beginning to worry about Bill getting hurt. Bill has a bout tonight against an up and coming fighter. Bill tells her that he can take him, he feels it this time...
Stoker: Yeah, top spot. And I'm just one punch away.
Julie: I remember the first time you told me that. You were just one punch away from the title shot then. Don't you see, Bill, you'll always be just one punch away.
Meanwhile Tiny is taking $50 bucks from Danny to have Stoker take a dive for Little Boy in the four round match. Sounds like chump change but (hey, a hamburger and two beers tab came to $1.16 including the tax, lol), Tiny clues in Red. Red asks Tiny how much he got and Tiny lies and tells him $30, and then slips him $10. Red then asks if Stoker knows.
Red: I tell you, Tiny, you gotta let him in on it.
Tiny: How many times I gotta say it? There's no percentage in smartenin' up a chump.
Tiny tells Stoker's gonna lose anyway so why cut him in.
Stoker heads to the arena to get ready and he expects Julie to be in the stands rooting for him. Julie is conflicted, she can't watch Bill take another beating. Instead of going to the match she takes off for the arcade. It all of course goes Noirsville.
Noirsville
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| The Paradise City "tenderloin" |
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| Pacific Electric Red Car going into Hill Street Tunnel |
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| Ben Moselle as Referee far left. |
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| Kill 'im! |
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| The Blindman ( Archie Leonard) rt, and his companion (John Butler) lt. |
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| The Cozy "residence" Hotel |
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| Two rats |
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| The fix |
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| Archie Leonard as The Blindman |
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| Fight fans Herbert Anderson as Husband Helen Brown as Wife |
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| Andy Carillo? -The Cigar Smoker |
Betting on the fight
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| Dan Foster betting with Constance Worth as Bunny Little Boy's Wife |
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| Giving a blow by blow description |
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| Wallace Ford rt., as locker room supervisor |
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| Hill Street Twin Tunnel streetcars lt. vehicular traffic rt. |
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| The reckoning |
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| Dwight Martin as The Glutton |
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| Hal Baylor as Tiger Nelson |
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| Jill on Hill Street Tunnel parapet |
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| Fight fans Jack Raymond? and Ruth Brennan |
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| Dreamland Patrons |
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| Bernard Gorcey (Louie from the Bowery Boy films) as tobacconist |
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| Tommy Noonan as Masher on Street |
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| Vincent Graeff as Newsboy lt., and Frank Richards as Bat |
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| The worried rats |
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| Hill Street looking South |
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| A real sports Junkie watching the fight and listening to a ball game on what looks like a RCA Victor Nipper 7-BX-6J Portable Tube Radio |
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| The worried weasel |
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| Above the Hill Street Tunnel |
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The cinematography is outstanding we get are a lot of nice beautifully lit and composed facial closeups and boxing action with a juxtaposition of great 5 to 10 second cutaway vignettes of various members of the fight audience reactions that provide a wonderful cross section of humanity. You get the frail who tells us outside the area that she hates boxing, screaming for blood during the fight. You get a boxing enthusiast who is also listening to a baseball game. The blindman who enthusiastically gets his jollies every time a fighter gets a cut above his eye. A fat man goes through every type of concession offered. All this was compactly fitted into a "real time" sequence that fits the films running length of one hour and 13 minutes minus of course, what ever fraction the credits used. The huge cast also boasts Bernard Gorcey (Louie from the Bowery Boy films) as Tobacco Man and real life Noir photographer Arthur 'Weegee' Fellig as the time keeper for the boxing ring, nice touchs. Makes you wonder how many other uncredited denizens of the "dark side" of life made it into the flick.
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| WeeGee as round timekeeper |
Of course Joseph Moncure March didn't like the changes made to his poem in the film. I haven't read it yet, but I'd think (knowing Hollywood) that they probably inserted the love story. Also March's boxing hero was a black man who didn't have a happy ending.
The narrative (of Marsh's poem The Set-Up) tells the story of an ageing African-American boxer used as a 'set-up' against a younger boxer, Sailor Gray. The story focuses on the link between crime and professional boxing as it was in the first half of the 20th century. March is interested in the role race plays in the sport, and how racial politics appear when they are transmuted into the boxing ring. "Pansy had the stuff, but his skin was brown; And he never got a chance at the middleweight crown." (Joseph Moncure March 1968 (Maine, United States of America: The Bond Wheelwright Company, 1968))
The world that March depicts is brutal, the people are vicious to each other. We first encounter fighter-managers Cohn and Ed MacPhail in Herman Brecht's bar, where they are due to meet Tony Morelli. Morelli, a fight boss, is in need of a fighter to set against his up-and-coming young fighter Sailor Gray. Cohn and MacPhail suggest Pansy Jones as a candidate, and the fight is fixed. Money is exchanged, Morelli tells Cohn and Ed MacPhail to give a portion to Jones to ensure he 'goes down to Gray' but after leaving the bar Cohn and Ed MacPhail decide not to give Jones any of the fixing money. When the fight takes place Pansy Jones discovers the truth and, pride bruised, angrily wins the fight against Gray. Much to the resentment of the fight-managers who, accompanied by Gray, subsequently, chase Pansy Jones down. They run him into the subway, and Pansy Jones falls onto the tracks of an oncoming train. The ending is ambiguous, but it is assumed he dies. (Wiki)
Regardless this Noir is another 10/10 for me.
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One of the best reviews i've seen done on this.... This movie is an automatic choice for ten best Noirs from "Classic" period.....also some great stills which i've never seen online before.
ReplyDeletethanks!
ReplyDelete