The Harder They Fall (1956 film)

For the 2021 western film, see The Harder They Fall (2021 film).

The Harder They Fall
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Mark Robson
Screenplay by	Philip Yordan
Based on	The Harder They Fall a 1947 novel by Budd Schulberg
Produced by	Philip Yordan
Starring	Humphrey Bogart Rod Steiger Jan Sterling
Cinematography	Burnett Guffey
Edited by	Jerome Thoms
Music by	Hugo Friedhofer
Color process	Black and white
Production company	Columbia Pictures
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date	March 31, 1956 (1956-03-31)
Running time	109 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$1,350,000 (US)

The Harder They Fall is a 1956 American boxing film noir directed by Mark Robson and produced and written by Philip Yordan, based on Budd Schulberg's 1947 novel of the same name. It was Humphrey Bogart's final film role. At the 29th Academy Awards, Burnett Guffey was nominated for Best Cinematography, Black and White, for his work on the film.

Plot

In New York City, sports journalist Eddie Willis, recently out of work when the newspaper he worked for went under, goes to watch a workout by the new discovery of shady boxing promoter Nick Benko, who has been trying for eight years to hire Eddie as a press agent. The fighter, an enormous young Argentinian dubbed "Toro" Moreno, turns out to be inexperienced and has a glass jaw, but Benko still thinks his size can be used as a gimmick to attract attention. Once Benko offers enough money, Eddie agrees to help, as he is bitter that his years of diligent work have not made it easy to find a good-paying job in his current field.

Although Eddie has some misgivings about Benko's scheme to build up Toro's record over a series of fixed fights, to reduce the likelihood they will be found out, he suggests they start in California and slowly work their way back east. Eddie manufactures a backstory for Toro and gets him a lot of media coverage, but his first fight is so suspicious that the boxing commission opens an investigation. In exchange for 10% of Toro, Eddie gets the investigation closed by convincing his old friend Art Leavitt, who is a national TV sports journalist, to testify that the fight could have been honest, though the favor puts an end to their friendship.

Toro and Benko's entourage travel from fight to fight in a tour bus bedecked in advertising, and, with Eddie handling negotiations with the other boxers and their managers to ensure the desired outcome, he gradually becomes a heavyweight contender. By the time they reach Chicago, Benko is able to arrange for Toro to fight Gus Dundee, who recently lost the heavyweight title to Buddy Brannen. As Dundee is known to be an honest man, Eddie is surprised to find that he has agreed to take a dive. Although Dundee seems confused and has a persistent headache, he is cleared to fight, and Toro knocks him out. When Dundee fails to get back up, he is taken to the hospital, where he dies.

Although those in Benko's camp assume Dundee had sustained a brain injury during his brutal fight with Brannen, Benko uses the publicity to further build up Toro's fearsome reputation and schedule a title bout against Brannen, who is angry that Toro is being given credit for what he also feels is his kill. Toro, however, unaware that all of his fights have been fixed, is overcome with guilt over Dundee's death and wishes to return to Argentina. After convincing Toro that he could not have killed Dundee by having a middle-aged trainer easily knock him down, Eddie is able to convince Toro to stick it out for one more fight to get his cut of the big payday.

Worried about what people will think about him if he just lays down, Toro tries his best against Brannen and sustains a beating that leaves him with a broken jaw. Eddie goes to get his and Toro's money from Benko and discovers Benko selling Toro's contract to another manager, who plans to have Toro travel around and lose to local fighters. While Eddie gets his promised cut of Toro, which amounts to $26,000, Benko has rigged the accounting so Toro receives only $49.07 of over $1 million in ticket revenue. Ashamed of his part in the farce given Toro's trust in him, Eddie gives Toro the $26,000 and puts the fighter onto a plane to Argentina. When Benko comes to Eddie to make threats for costing him $70,000 from the sale of Toro's contract, Eddie is defiant and announces that he is going to write an exposé about the corruption in professional boxing.

Cast

• Humphrey Bogart as Eddie Willis, a former sports journalist now working as a press agent for a boxer
• Rod Steiger as Nick Benko, a gangster and crooked boxing promoter
• Jan Sterling as Beth Willis, Eddie's wife
• Mike Lane as Toro Moreno, a hulking young Argentinian boxer
• Max Baer as Buddy Brannen, a heavyweight contender, and later the heavyweight champion
• Jersey Joe Walcott as George, a former boxer and McKeogh's assistant trainer
• Edward Andrews as Jim Weyerhause, a crooked boxing manager
• Harold J. Stone as Art Leavitt, a national TV sports journalist and Eddie's old friend
• Carlos Montalbán as Luís Agrandi, Toro's manager
• Nehemiah Persoff as Leo, Benko's crooked accountant
• Felice Orlandi as Vince Fawcett, one of Benko's henchmen
• Herbie Faye as Max, a trainer working for Benko
• Rusty Lane as Danny McKeogh, Benko's head trainer, who trains Toro
• Jack Albertson as Pop, Dundee's manager

Uncredited

• Val Avery as Frank, one of Benko's henchmen
• Matt Murphy as Sailor Rigazzo, Toro's first opponent
• Joe Greb as himself in a taped on-location interview with Leavitt
• Everett Glass as the reverend who advises Mrs. Harding
• Lillian Culver as Mrs. Wilson Harding of the Crippled Children's Fund
• William Roerick as Mrs. Harding's lawyer
• Tina Carver as Mrs. Benko, Nick's wife
• Pat Comiskey as Gus Dundee, the heavyweight champion
• Abel Fernandez as Chief Firebird, Toro's opponent in Oklahoma
• Michael Granger as Dundee's doctor
• Paul Frees as the priest in New York

Production

In early 1956, Bogart was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, and he died on January 14, 1957. Occasionally inaudible in a take, some of Bogart's lines as Willis are reported to have been dubbed in post-production by Paul Frees, who played a priest in the film. Steiger recalled Bogart's professionalism during production, even while coping with his illness:

Bogey and I got on very well. Unlike some other stars, when they had closeups, you might have been relegated to a two-shot, or cut out altogether. Bogey didn't play those games. He was a professional and had tremendous authority. He'd come in exactly at 9am and leave at precisely 6pm. I remember once walking to lunch in between takes and seeing Bogey on the lot. I shouldn't have because his work was finished for the day. I asked him why he was still on the lot, and he said, "They want to shoot some retakes of my closeups because my eyes are too watery." A little while later, after the film, somebody came up to me with word of Bogey's death. Then it struck me. His eyes were watery because he was in pain with the cancer. I thought: "How dumb can you be, Rodney!"

The film was released with two different endings: one in which Eddie Willis (inspired by sports writer Harold Conrad, according to Conrad) demanded that boxing be banned altogether, and another in which he merely insisted that there be a federal investigation into boxing. Some video releases contain the "harder" ending, while most television prints end with the "softer" message.

Reception

Critical response

The film premiered at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times liked the film, writing: "It's a brutal and disagreeable story, probably a little far-fetched, and without Mr. Schulberg's warmest character [from the novel]—the wistful widow who bestowed her favors on busted pugs. But with all the arcana of the fight game that Mr. Yordan and Mr. Robson have put into it—along with their bruising, brutish fight scenes—it makes for a lively, stinging film."

Dennis Schwartz wrote: "The unwell Bogie's last film is not a knockout, but his hard-hitting performance is terrific as a has-been sports journalist out of desperation taking a job as a publicist for a fight fixer in order to get a bank account ... The social conscience film is realistic, but fails to be shocking or for that matter convincing."

Lawsuit

Primo Carnera sued Columbia for $1.5 million in damages, alleging that the film was based on him and invaded his privacy. The lawsuit was not successful.

See also

• List of American films of 1956
• List of boxing films

References

Sources

• Fantle, David; Johnson, Tom (2009). Twenty Five Years of Celebrity Interviews from Vaudeville to Movies to TV, Reel to Real. Badger Books Inc. ISBN 978-1-932542-04-2.

External links

• The Harder They Fall at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
• The Harder They Fall at IMDb
• The Harder They Fall at AllMovie
• The Harder They Fall at the TCM Movie Database