Harder They Fall - 1956
Cats: Set Your Recorders, Film Noir, Bogart|This picture is a rarity. A sports themed film noir. It also turned out to be Humphrey Bogart’s last picture.
Mr. Bogart plays jobless sportswriter Eddie Willis. Biting the bullet and selling out by going to work for corrupt fight promoter Nick Benko (Rod Steiger), Eddie is hired to promote Benko’s current protege, an unknown Argentinian named Toro Moreno. Although Moreno is a hulking giant, he is no boxer and has a glass jaw. Benko relies on Willis’ reputation and standing in the boxing community and a series of fixed fights to get the unsophisticated Moreno to the championship fight. Unfortunately Toro starts to believe that he can box. The reigning champ, the sadistic Buddy Brannen (played by the former champ Max Baer), harbors resentment at the publicity Toro has been getting, and vows to viciously punish him in the ring. Eddie must now decide whether or not to redeem himself and tell naive Toro the truth.
As always, Mr. Bogart is great. He was not to thrilled about working with a “method” actor (he referred to them as “scratch your ass and mumble actors) and he was not a well man. According to Hollywood urban legend, Mr. Bogart was so sick during filming that his voice had to be re-dubbed by an impersonator. In truth, though, the voice heard in the film is indeed Humphrey Bogart’s own voice. The last bit of film he appears in was a soundless color costume test for a picture that he was going to make with Lauren Bacall. It would have been their fifth picture together and their first in color.
Midnight, Sunday (or Saturday depending how you look at it) March 1 on Turner Classic Movies.
