Watch The Harder They Fall For Free

SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

It was so much more believable three or four decades ago. It's nothing to do with production or performances, it's that the writing leapfrogs certain points of development and the actors have to sell it. It looks like "On the Waterfront"; it wants to be "Requiem for a Heavyweight"; it has a plot equal to those but it just doesn't quite hit the mark and the fight choreography is what I remember as a kid realizing 'Hey, they're not really fighting'. Still, the story is good enough to make up for all that picking of nits. Classic

Director: MARK ROBSON. Screenplay: Philip Yordan. Based on the 1947 novel by Budd Schulberg. Director of photography: Burnett Guffey. Music by Hugo Friedhofer. Film editor: Jerome Thoms. Assistant director: Milton Feldman. Art director: William Flannery. Set decorations by William Kiernan and Alfred E. Spencer. Make-up artist: Clay Campbell. Hair styles by Helen Hunt. Sound recorder: Lambert Day. Orchestrations by Arthur Morton. Music conducted by Lionel Newman. Technical adviser, boxing coach and fight choreographer: John Indrisano. Westrex Sound System. Producer: Philip Yordan.Copyright 1956 by Columbia Pictures Corp. New York opening at the Astor: 9 May 1956. U.S. release: April 1956. U.K. release: 7 May 1956. Australian release: 8 March 1957. Sydney opening at the Capitol, a weekly-change, action grind-house at the unfashionable end of town. 109 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Nick Benko, head of a fight-promotion syndicate, imports an Argentinian giant named Toro Moreno, who looks formidable but actually has a "powder-puff punch and a glass jaw." To publicize the freak battler, Benko hires Eddie Willis, an ex-sports columnist, who accepts the job despite the misgivings of his wife, Beth. Fixing fight after fight, Benko eventually gets Toro a match with Gus Dundee, the ex-champ, but Dundee, having taken severe punishment from Buddy Brannen in his previous fight, collapses in the ring and dies of a brain hemorrhage. Thinking he has killed him, Toro refuses to appear in the title bout.NOTES: The script has a factual basis, namely the crime mob's promotion, and eventual elevation via a whole series of fixed fights, of Primo Carnera, who eventually lost his heavyweight crown to Max Baer in 1934. It was a masterstroke to get Baer to reprise his victory here, though of course he is no longer playing Baer but a fictitious composite. Baer looks great, though he was to die only a few years later in 1959.Humphrey Bogart's last film. The actor was dying of cancer before he even started the film, eventually passing away on 14 January 1957, shortly before his 58th birthday.Aside from newsreels and other actuality material, this is the only film appearance of former heavyweight champion Jersey Joe Walcott.The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Black-and-white Cinematography (won by Joseph Ruttenberg for "Somebody Up There Likes Me").COMMENT: Hard-hitting fight drama, directed with astonishing speed and vigorous finesse by the often stodgy Mark Robson. Assisted by Burnett Guffey's superb location photography, a driving script and some of the finest performances this side of heavyweight heaven, The Harder They Fall is still a film of tremendous power and appalling excitement.The fighters themselves are uniformly superb. To see Max Baer and Jersey Joe Walcott in action — both on and off the ring (though the charismatic, well-spoken Jersey Joe is confined to sparring bouts) — is worth the price of admission alone. Humphrey Bogart has one of his most dynamic roles, whilst Rod Steiger, not to be outdone, really pours on the heat, delivering Yordan's dialogue with a riveting ego-maniacal authority. Nehemiah Persoff as yes-man Leo, Edward Andrews as an opportunistic manager and of course Mike Lane himself (this was his only important film role) excel in support.OTHER VIEWS: "The boxing business must rid itself of the evil influence of racketeers and crooked managers, even if it takes an Act of Congress to do it." As Bogart types this up at the fade-out, it forms our last image of him on the screen. Personally, I found the film not quite as punchy as I did in 1956. Maybe we've seen too many boxing exposes in the meantime. Robson's direction also appears slack in places (all the scenes with Stone who seems just too amateurish, even for TV, especially in his interview with a real- life punch-drunk). But aside from Stone, and also Sterling (admittedly her role is a cliché), Robson has drawn some mighty convincing performances all around. Especially memorable: Mike Lane as the glass-jawed giant, Max Baer as the sadistic, press-posing champ, and Edward Andrews in one of his most telling roles (he has some of the film's most caustic dialogue) as a repulsively sleazy manager. Ace cinematographer Burnett Guffey has lit the film with both admirable sharpness and starkly chilling atmosphere. Boxing veteran Johnny Indrisano has choreographed the fights for maximum impact (no doubt assisted by Robson's knowledge and experience as a former film editor). - John Howard Reid writing as George Addison.

Humphrey Bogart is truly brilliant in this, his last film. "The Harder They Fall" (1956) is a stunning indictment of the boxing profession. The film also marks Humphrey Bogart's final performance as a former sports writer turned publicist — and he's in good company. Bogie's scenes with Rod Steiger, Jan Sterling and Mike Lane (as the giant Argentinian boxer) are truly memorable. In addition to Bogart's fantastic performance, Rod Steiger chews the scenery nicely as a corrupt manager. Their scenes together are really well done, and very well written. I particularly enjoyed the scene after the big fight where Bogart presses to find out how much their fighter will ultimately wind up for getting so badly beaten in the ring.There are probably a good dozen very, very good fight films, and this belongs to their number. The tension in the film derives from the ultimate conflict between Bogart's inherent decency and Steiger's unmitigated exploitativeness. The two had great on screen chemistry in their scenes together. They employed very different acting styles, Steiger being one of the first Method actors to enjoy success in the movies. Bogart was strictly old school, but he not only held his own, he dominated their scenes together.Humphrey Bogart's last movie was a triumph! His acting was terrific! Excellent movie!

Directed by Mark Robson, "The Harder They Fall" stars the inimitable Humphrey Bogart as Eddie Willis, a washed up sports journalist who, out of desperation, takes on a job working as a boxing publicist."Fall" was Bogart's final film before his death. Much of the picture watches as Eddie works for the mob, who rig fights, bribe boxers and manipulate the Heavyweight Championship such that an unknown Argentinian boxer (Mike Lane), who can't fight at all, makes his way up the ranks. Bizarrely, the film then develops into a "social conscience message movie", Bogart becoming a mouthpiece who espouses the better treatment of boxers, who throughout Robson's film are exploited, underpaid, manipulated and then discarded. As a noirish crime drama, the film's excellent. As a message movie, it's poorly written, though Bogart's as smooth as ever.7.5/10 – Worth one viewing.