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one of my absolute favorites!

Don't Believe the Hype

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

The acting in this movie is really good.

I saw the original Requiem for a Heavyweight starring Jack Palance in 1956, and I absolutely loved it. Jack was fantastic; I couldn't imagine anyone else doing a better job in the role. Now that I've seen both versions, the Playhouse 90 and Hollywood versions, I still can't pick a favorite. To me, Jack Palance and Anthony Quinn give excellent and different performances that can't be compared against each other. Jack is sweet; Tony is rugged. Jack is clueless; Tony is brain-damaged. Rod Serling's story is very heavy, but the 1962 version is a little heavier, so my advice is to start with whichever level of drama you're in the mood for.In the story, Anthony Quinn gets one too many hits to the head and is forced to give up the only job he's ever had. His manager Jackie Gleason isn't happy about it because he's racked up an enormous amount of gambling debts. While he tries to talk Tony into humiliating himself by entering the world of wrestling so he can make more money, Mickey Rooney tries to look out for Tony's best interests. Mickey is the trainer, and he knows firsthand what it's like to be at the top of the world and suddenly have your career taken away. Both Jackie and Mickey are very good in these dark, emotional roles, but they're no comparison to Tony's performance. His raw, heartbreaking performance falls under the category of "What does it take?", as he wasn't even nominated for an Oscar. I've seen more than forty of his films, and this is probably the best performance he's ever given. If you liked Somebody Up There Likes Me, this movie might become your new favorite. I don't know how he balances the fine line of having brain damage and trying to hold onto the wits he has left, but it's scarily accurate. In one moment, he's able to carry on a conversation with Julie Harris, and in the next, he lapses into a flashback in the ring. He's brought out of his episode, and while part of him doesn't really know what he's done wrong, another part of him is terribly sorry and doesn't know how to make it right. If you're like me and you get affected by powerful performances, get out your Kleenexes.

There were a lot of boxing films back when the fight ring was king. None however are better than this one. That's thanks to powerhouse acting and a first-rate script (Serling). Quinn's unforgettable as the damaged fighter, his face a mile of battered road, with a voice to match. Now he's at the end of that road. After all, even an athlete's body can only take so much. Trouble is he's the meal ticket for manager Maish (Gleason) who owes money big time to gangland thugs who will take him on a ride if he doesn't pay up. So maybe the desperate Maish can talk the slow thinker into prostituting himself as a phony wrestler. After all, doesn't Mountain owe him after their years together. At least that's what the exploitive Maish claims. Still, Mountain's got a chance at a decent job, thanks to employment counselor Miss Miller (Harris). So what will Maish do, and, more importantly, what will become of the ex-pug.What a fine cast. Gleason's Maish is not so much mean or evil as he is weak, that is, a manager willing to take advantage of his hapless charge. His dour expression and tight manner are about as far from the boisterous Ralph Kramden (The Honeymooners) as night is from day. Then too, Quinn's got the slow-thinking stammer down perfectly, projecting real pathos behind his lumbering hulk. Rooney's role as trainer-handler is more incidental, serving mainly as the trio's observer and conscience. And, of course, there's Broadway's distinguished Julie Harris as what amounts to the conventional world's Miss Miller. If there's a flaw in the film, I suspect it's with her not-very-clear interest in Mountain's life. But maybe the ambiguity is intentional, her limits being reached once Mountain makes a pass.That scene where a drunken Mountain goes to interview on a job Miss Miller has arranged is almost painful to watch. Maish has sabotaged Mountain's chances by getting him drunk. Worse, the interview's at a ritzy hotel, and loosing an inebriated lug there is almost like the fabled bull in a china shop. To me, the scene shows two worlds coming wrenchingly apart, dashing Mountain's best hopes. In fact, it looks like the movie is really about the three man family and how it also comes apart. Hard to think of a fight film being poignant, but this one is. It's salutes all around, even to the appropriately seedy sets. All in all, the results show that author Serling was as much at home in lower city precincts as he was in the upper zones of twilight.

With a title like "Requiem for a Heavyweight" you certainly aren't expecting an upbeat movie! But, here, there ends up being little point to watching the film. The film starts with the heavyweight of the title, Anthony Quinn, badly losing a fight. The fight doctor declares him unable to fight anymore, since he could lose sight in his left eye if he goes back in the ring.What follows is the expected downward spiral, instigated by the thoroughly unscrupulous manager played by Jackie Gleason. He's deep in debt to bookies and has no issue in using Quinn's fighter in any way he can to make a buck. He certainly plays a reprehensible character very well.I love black-and-white cinematography, and it is beautifully done here, on location in New York. Unfortunately, we get to see little of the city during the course of the movie, since the drama takes place almost entirely in interiors.The script is by Rod Serling, who always showed skill with various genres. The movie is staged well by Ralph Nelson, a veteran TV director, who helmed the original TV version of the story in 1956.The performances are excellent all around. It is amazing to see how beaten up Mickey Rooney looks at 42! His appearance definitely sells him as the worn-down "cut man" of the team. The make up is by Dick Smith, to me the greatest make up artist ever in film. He is most famous for creating Brando's "The Godfather," as well as doing make up effects, like in "The Exorcist." Here, he's billed as Richard Smith.Overall, an interesting movie for what it is. But, you can see all the beats coming before they happen.****** (6 Out of 10 Stars)

There is not one scene or one piece of dialog or one piece of this production that is nothing less than masterful. A perfect picture that demonstrates the ability and talent of all involved. The cinematography and set design are a norish display of a devilishness that pervades the urban decay and the decline of the species from ape to man to ape-man.All the performances are elegant and the musical score is biting with jazzy tones befitting the multi-cultural sport and the mayhem of the monsters and mobsters who inhabit this asphalt and canvas jungle. It is a riveting recital of the human condition that is part evolution and part separation from the Divine. Dignity and self respect, greed and vice, love and loathing, friendship and betrayal, hope and hopelessness. are all here and much more to contemplate. All from a low budget and high nobility.A survival of the fittest morality tale. Quite quintessentially Rod Serling.