Hard Times (1975 film)

Hard Times
Original theatrical poster
Directed by	Walter Hill
Produced by	Lawrence Gordon
Screenplay by	Walter Hill Bryan Gindoff Bruce Henstell
Story by	Bryan Gindoff Bruce Henstell
Starring	Charles Bronson James Coburn Jill Ireland Strother Martin
Music by	Barry De Vorzon
Cinematography	Philip H. Lathrop
Edited by	Roger Spottiswoode
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date	October 8, 1975 (USA)
Running time	93 min
Country	USA
Language	English
Budget	$2.7 million or $3.1 million
Box office	$4 million (rentals) (US/Canada) 724,906 admissions (France)

Hard Times is a 1975 film marking the directorial debut of Walter Hill. It stars Charles Bronson as Chaney, a drifter freighthopping through Louisiana during the Great Depression, who competes in illegal bare-knuckled boxing matches after forming a partnership with the garrulous hustler Speed, played by James Coburn.

A man dressed in simple workman's clothes jumps down from the boxcar of a slow-moving train on the outskirts of an anonymous town somewhere in Louisiana. He soon comes upon a bare-knuckled street fight run by gamblers, which he intently observes. After the bout, the man approaches the fast-talking "Speed", the backer of the losing fighter. Introducing himself as Chaney, he asks Speed to set up a fight for him, which Speed does. Before the fight, his opponent, the winner of the contest he previously witnessed, looks Chaney up and down and asks disparagingly if he isn't a little too old to be there. Betting all of the six dollars he possesses on himself, Chaney responds by dispatching the younger man with a single punch.

Suitably impressed, Speed offers to become Chaney's manager, but Chaney cautions Speed that he needs only enough money to "fill a few in-betweens" before moving on. They travel to New Orleans where Speed plans to match Chaney against local fighters at long odds. Chaney finds lodgings in a rundown rooming house. At a diner, he meets Lucy Simpson (Jill Ireland), a lonely woman whose husband is in prison. They begin an uneasy affair.

Speed recruits the genteel but slightly decrepit cutman, Poe (Strother Martin), "a dyed in the wool hophead" whose spell at medical school many years before was cut short, Poe confesses, due to his fondness for opium. Chaney nonetheless accedes to Speed's request and accepts Poe's services at the going rate.

Speed arranges another fight, this time in bayou country. Chaney, Speed and Poe are accompanied on the trip by Speed's lady friend, Gayleen (Margaret Blye). Chaney easily disposes of the Cajun hitter, but the hitter's sponsor, Pettibon (Edward Walsh), refuses to pay up on the grounds that Chaney is a ringer. Chaney seems to accept matters and persuades the indignant Speed to leave. However, later that evening Chaney and his retinue appear unannounced at Pettibon's backwoods honky-tonk. Overcoming Pettibon's confederates with his fists, Cheney seizes a pistol, forces Pettibon to turn over the unpaid cash, and proceeds to shoot up Pettibon's joint until all the bullets are discharged. The troupe drives back to New Orleans in high spirits.