The Harder They Fall (1956)

Director:

Mark Robson

Writers:

Budd Schulberg (novel)
Philip Yordan (screenplay)

Release Date:

9 mayo 1956 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Film-Noir | Sport | Thriller

Frase comercial:

No Punches Pulled! If you thought "On The Waterfront" hit hard... wait till you see this one!

Plot:

Down-on-his-luck ex-sportswriter Eddie Willis is hired by shady fight promoter Nick Benko to promote his latest find, an unknown but easily exploitable phenom from Argentina.

Plot Keywords:

Boxing | Based On Novel

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 nomination

Comentarios de los usuarios:

A decent insight into the business of boxing!

Cast

Humphrey Bogart	...	Eddie Willis
Rod Steiger	...	Nick Benko
Jan Sterling	...	Beth Willis
Mike Lane	...	Toro Moreno
Max Baer	...	Buddy Brannen
Jersey Joe Walcott	...	George
Edward Andrews	...	Jim Weyerhause
Harold J. Stone	...	Art Leavitt, TV sportscaster
Carlos Montalbán	...	Luís Agrandi
Nehemiah Persoff	...	Leo
Felice Orlandi	...	Vince Fawcett
Herbie Faye	...	Max
Rusty Lane	...	Danny McKeogh
Jack Albertson	...	Pop

También conocida como:

Más dura será la caída (Spain) [es]

Duración:

109 min

País:

USA

Idioma:

Español | English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sonido:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Clasificación:

Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:12 (video re-rating) (2002) (uncut) | UK:A (original rating) (cut) | USA:Approved (certificate #17754) | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Beverly Hills Hotel & Bungalows - 9641 Sunset Blvd., Beverly Hills, California, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivialidades:

The character of Eddie Willis is based upon the career of writer and event promoter Harold Conrad.

Goofs:

Factual errors: A TV sportscaster's man-on-the-street interview with a punch-drunk fighter filmed on location on Skid Row features multiple camera angles (long shot, middle shot and close-ups)--a technological luxury requiring three consecutively-rolling cameras no TV news station in the mid-Fifties could possibly have afforded.

Quotes:

First Reporter: Can he box?
Eddie Willis: No Gene Tunney.
Second Reporter: Can he punch?
Eddie Willis: Not like Jack Dempsey.
Third Reporter: Well, what's he got besides just being big?
Eddie Willis: He's got an iron jaw and a cast-iron stomach. Not a man alive can hurt him.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Simpsons: The Homer They Fall (#8.3)" (1996)

A decent insight into the business of boxing!

Although this movie is now 50 years old I think that it is more relevant now than it was then in 1956. Prize fighting has moved on leaps and bounds since then, some of it positive and some negative. Of course it depends on your point of view about boxing and in some respects the message that this movie sends is totally dependent on that view. Some might say that it is anti boxing but I would say that it is a realistic portrayal of the business of professional boxing.

In this movie a boxing promoter Nick Benko (Rod Steiger) hires a washed up sports writer Eddie Willis (Humphry Bogart) to help talk up and help with the promotion of a new boxing sensation called Toro an Argentinean giant (6' 8" and 270 Ib.) "the wild man of the Andes". Unfortunately, Toro despite his size couldn't punch his way out of a wet paper bag and even worse, has a chandelier jaw to match. Any decent fighter worth his weight would turn Toro's legs into linguine with a decent combination of punches. Despite this obvious problem Benko is not perturbed and along with his crooked associates stage a series of fights where Toros opponents are bribed to throw the fights after a couple of rounds. The ultimate goal is to make Toro look much better than he really is.

The result of a string of wins against some decent opponents allows Toro to build up an impressive boxing resume and consequently his stock value in the world of boxing rises too. The tragedy is that Toro starts to believe in his own ability and Willis who feels he has a sense of responsibility towards Toro because he is partly responsible for the hype has a genuine feeling of affection for Toro who in reality is a naive gentle giant who only wants to go back to Argentina and buy his parents a home with his money.The ending of the movie is perhaps somewhat predictable but not without honor and your belief in humanity is some what left intact.

In offering full disclosure I think that boxing can be one of the most entertaining and exciting sporting events. The 1981 welterweight unification bout between Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns and the 1989 commonwealth title fight between middle weights Michael Watson and Nigel Benn both spring to mind. Fights are no more intense and exciting as these two and both lived up to pre-fight hype. However, on the down side boxing is riddled with miss matches and over hyped fighters. Frank Bruno a British heavyweight and world contender in the 1980's and early 1990's was one. Blessed with a well chiseled physic he built up an impressive KO record, yet when he came up against anybody half decent or not payed to take a dive he was found out and not nearly as powerful as we were led to believe. Also there is an alphabet soup of world bodies who claim to represent a world champion, phony fights and "Mexican road sweepers" who fall over when instructed too.

It's also important to note that boxing is also entertainment but more importantly a business and this movie portrays this very well. Yes big business, which goes some way to explain why there is so many promoters, world bodies, fighters, world title fights of some description. Boxing is like any other business it's marketed, promoted and sold to the public as entertainment and consequently to sell out crowds and large PPV TV audience or else exclusive TV rights. It's big money and there's a lot to be made, there are a lot of snouts in the trough claiming a cut of the money.

When you hear of a boxer getting paid $30 million a fight, by the time all of the expenses are taken into account, all the entourage get their slice the fighter gets considerably less. The fighter in effect is just one cog in the giant machine of the business in boxing, although an important part never the less he can't get the big fights unless they are a team player and play ball with the promoters. This movie in particular portrays this very well! I have no problem with the business nature, entertainment or the violence of boxing. As for the public or TV companies who are fooled into believing the hype of up and coming fighters and are willing to pay so much to watch fights under false pretenses -that's too bad. What I'm concerned with the welfare of the fighters when so many people are filthy rich out of prize fighting. In the end of the movie Eddie Willis concludes that boxing should be banned. That's the anti boxing message, however boxing can't be banned! The scandal is the fighters who end up seriously injured and broke either through the trauma of one fight i.e Gerald McClellan or through a succession of fights like the Quarry brothers who both ended up with brain damage and consequently in assisted living accommodation.

There are too many fat cats in boxing who are not accountable for the injuries that their fighters suffer while in the ring, this needs to be addressed and sorted out. To me this is what the movie is saying!