Bogart, Steiger, The Harder They Fall

Hollywood made some very worthy boxing films in the late 1940s and 1950s.

Body and Soul, Champion, The Set-Up, Somebody Up There Likes Me, and in 1956, The Harder They Fall, starring Humphrey Bogart.

This wasn’t Bogart’s first foray into the world of boxing. He had co-starred with Edward G. Robinson and Bette Davis almost 20 years before in Kid Galahad. (remade 25 years later, starring Elvis Presley)

Bogart (of course) played the villain. That was his speciality in the early years of his career. He was so good that Hollywood had problems casting him as anything other than a gangster. It took eight years into his movie career for his big break to come. The movie that made Hollywood look at him differently was The High Sierra, filmed in 1940.

By the time he appeared in The Harder They Fall, Bogart had won an Oscar (for The Caine Mutiny) and delivered superb performances in The Petrified Forest (1936), the aforementioned High Sierra, The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, and In a Lonely Place. 

Sadly, The Harder They Fall would be his swan song.

The film is cynical, dark, and corrupt, a film noir classic, and very much like boxing.

Bogart plays washed-up Eddie Willis, a cynical sportswriter who gets hired by a fixer, Rod Steiger, to promote a giant Argentinian boxer. There’s a problem. The big guy can’t take a punch and lacks power.

“Powderpuff punch and a glass jaw,” says Eddie (Bogart), “that’s a great combination.”

Steiger, as mobster Nick Benko, is livid.

Willis needs a job.

“A man past his forties shouldn’t have to run anymore,” says Willis.

Despite major reservations, he accepts the job offer. He’ll promote a giant who can’t fight, and with his words and some help, turn him into an unbeaten monster.

The help? The fights will be fixed, and it’s up to Willis to sell them as legitimate—a tough sell. Willis is fighting himself as he promotes a fighter he knows can’t fight. He also likes the big guy (Toro), who’s more gentle than brutal.

How far will Eddie go?

Bogart is fabulous as the world-weary Willis. Steiger is also excellent, displaying a natural acting style. It’s a meeting of generations, but Bogart edges it with his believable cynicism.

Mike Lane plays Toro Moreno, the feather-fisted giant.

An impressive scene occurs when Toro, believing he’s a lethal human, is brought back to earth by the aging trainer George (former heavyweight champion Jersey Joe Walcott), one of his trainers.

“What do I do, Eddie?” Toro says after being knocked down by George.

Another former heavyweight champion, Max Baer, plays the champ who can’t stand Toro. He knows he’s a fake and can’t wait to punish him.

The Harder They Fall is a gritty, uncompromising look at the dark world of boxing, partially based on the true-life story of former champion Primo Carnera. The documentary style gives the film some extra bite.

Budd Schulberg (who also penned the classic On the Waterfront) wrote the book on which the film was based.

Schulberg famously said, “I hate boxing, and I love boxing.”

I couldn’t agree more.

This is an excellent film. Check it out.