The Harder They Fall
| The Harder They Fall | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Mark Robson |
| Produced by | Philip Yordan |
| Screenplay by | Philip Yordan |
| Based on |
The Harder They Fall 1947 novel by Budd Schulberg |
| Starring |
Humphrey Bogart Rod Steiger Jan Sterling |
| Music by | Hugo Friedhofer |
| Cinematography | Burnett Guffey |
| Edited by | Jerome Thoms |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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109 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $1,350,000 (US) |
The Harder They Fall is a 1956 film noir directed by Mark Robson, featuring Humphrey Bogart in his last film. It was written by Philip Yordan and based on the 1947 novel of the same name by Budd Schulberg.
The drama tells a "thinly disguised à clef account of the Primo Carnera boxing scandal," with the challenger based on Carnera and the champ based on Max Baer; previously both Baer and Carnera had starred in The Prizefighter and the Lady (1933), in which Carnera is the world champ and Baer is his challenger. Bogart's character, Eddie Willis, is based on the career of boxing writer and event promoter Harold Conrad.
Sportswriter Eddie Willis (Humphrey Bogart) is broke after the newspaper he works for goes under. He is hired by crooked boxing promoter Nick Benko (Rod Steiger) to publicize his new boxer, a huge, but slow-witted and untalented Argentinian named Toro Moreno (Mike Lane).
Unbeknownst to Toro and his friend and manager Luís Agrandi (Carlos Montalbán), all of his fights had been fixed to make the public believe that he is for real. After a short time, Benko gets Toro into a match against Gus Dundee (Pat Comiskey), the ex-heavyweight champ, before the title fight against Buddy Brannen (Max Baer). Dundee has agreed to lose the fight, as he is suffering headaches and neck pain from his last fight against Brannen. Dundee ends up collapsing in the ring and later dies of a brain hemorrhage in the hospital.
Feeling culpability in Dundee's death, Eddie hesitates in continuing his work in promoting Toro. Despite the misgivings of his wife (Jan Sterling), Benko has already convinced him otherwise due to Eddie wanting a huge pay-day. However, Toro feels guilty over Dundee's death and visits a priest (Paul Frees) who confirms Toro's feelings and agrees with him that he should go home to Argentina. Eddie tracks down Toro at the church and eventually convinces him to fight by telling him that this will be the last for both of them and that he will be able to take much money home to his parents.
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Wikipedia