The Harder They Fall (1956)

Director:

Mark Robson

Writers:

Budd Schulberg (novel)
Philip Yordan (screenplay)

Release Date:

9 May 1956 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Film-Noir | Sport | Thriller

Tagline:

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 | Fixed Fight | Bleeding Mouth | Reference To King Kong | Title Bout

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 nomination

US TV Schedule:

Wed. Dec. 30

4:30 PM

TCM

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
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Val Avery	...	Frank (uncredited)
Emily Belser	...	Reporter (uncredited)
Phil Berger	...	Boxer being knocked out in Bakersfield (uncredited)
Tony Blankley	...	Benko Child (uncredited)
Penny Carpenter	...	Benko child (uncredited)
Marian Carr	...	Alice (uncredited)
Tina Carver	...	Mrs. Benko (uncredited)
George Cisar	...	Fight Manager (uncredited)
Pat Comiskey	...	Gus Dundee (uncredited)
Lillian Culver	...	Mrs. Wilson Harding (uncredited)
Jack Daly	...	Reporter (uncredited)
Patricia Dane	...	Shirley (uncredited)
Vinnie De Carlo	...	Joey (uncredited)
Elaine Edwards	...	Vince's girl friend (uncredited)
Abel Fernandez	...	Chief Firebird (uncredited)
Paul Frees	...	Priest (uncredited)
Robert Fuller	...	Extra (uncredited)
Ralph Gamble	...	Reporter (uncredited)
Everett Glass	...	Minister (uncredited)
Michael Granger	...	Gus Dundee's Doctor (uncredited)
Joe Greb	...	Joey Greb-played himself (uncredited)
Frank Hagney	...	Referee (uncredited)
Sam Harris	...	Fight Crowd Extra (uncredited)
William Henry	...	Fight Arena Locker Room Guart (uncredited)
Tommy Herman	...	Tommy (uncredited)
Joe Herrera	...	Referee (uncredited)
Charles Horvath	...	Fighter (uncredited)
Kenner G. Kemp	...	Detective (uncredited)
Don Kohler	...	Reporter (uncredited)
Peter Leeds	...	Ring announcer, Dundee fight (uncredited)
Mort Mills	...	Reporter in hospital (uncredited)
Diana Mumby	...	Vince's girl friend (uncredited)
Matt Murphy	...	Sailor Rigazzo (uncredited)
Richard Norris	...	Reporter (uncredited)
Stafford Repp	...	Reporter (uncredited)
William Roerick	...	Mrs. Harding's lawyer (uncredited)
Sandy Sanders	...	Reporter (uncredited)
Cosmo Sardo	...	Fight Crowd Extra (uncredited)
Mark Scott	...	Reporter (uncredited)
J. Lewis Smith	...	Brannen's manager (uncredited)
Bert Stevens	...	Fight Crowd Extra (uncredited)
Hal Taggart	...	Fight Crowd Extra (uncredited)
Charles Tannen	...	Reporter (uncredited)
Arthur Tovey	...	Fight rooter (uncredited)
Russ Whiteman	...	Reporter (uncredited)
Ulysses Williams	...	Boxer being knocked out in Salinas (uncredited)

Directed by
Mark Robson

Writing credits
Budd Schulberg		(novel)
Philip Yordan		(screenplay)

Produced by
Philip Yordan	....	producer

Original Music by
Hugo Friedhofer

Cinematography by
Burnett Guffey

Film Editing by
Jerome Thoms

Art Direction by
William Flannery

Set Decoration by
William Kiernan
Alfred E. Spencer

Makeup Department
Clay Campbell	....	makeup artist
Helen Hunt	....	hair stylist
Robert J. Schiffer	....	makeup artist (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Milton Feldman	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Lambert E. Day	....	sound (as Lambert Day)
John P. Livadary	....	recording supervisor (as John Livadary)

Stunts
Wally Rose	....	stunts (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Richard H. Kline	....	assistant camera (uncredited)

Music Department
Arthur Morton	....	orchestrator
Lionel Newman	....	conductor

Other crew
John Indrisano	....	technical advisor
Curtis Harrington	....	assistant to producer (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Columbia Pictures Corporation

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures (1956) (USA) (theatrical)
• Columbia Film-Verleih (1956) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (video)
• Columbia TriStar (2004) (Brazil) (DVD)

Runtime:

109 min

Country:

USA

Language:

Spanish | English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

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 (nf)

Filming Locations:

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

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Primo Carnera unsuccessfully sued the film's makers, claiming it damaged his reputation for implying that he was involved in fixed fights. Carnera's career is one of the biggest mysteries in boxing, as many of the sport's historians believe that, without Carnera's knowledge, his managers paid most of his opponents to throw their fights.

Goofs:

Continuity: As Bogart crosses a row a seats on his way to sit down at the Dundee fight, the collar of his overcoat turns up and down.

Quotes:

[Willis tells Toro to throw his fight with Buddy Brannen to avoid getting hurt]
Toro Moreno: I don't know, I don't know. What would people think of me?
Eddie Willis: What do you care what a bunch of bloodthirsty, screaming people think of you? Did you ever get a look at their faces? They pay a few lousy bucks hoping to see a man get killed. To hell with them! Think of yourself. Get your money and get out of this rotten business.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in À bout de souffle (1960)

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!