The Harder They Fall [DVD] [2003]

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Product Description ------------------- Academy Award(r)-Winner* Humphrey Bogart stars in one of his most memorable performances as Eddie Willis, a sportswriter who joins forces with a corrupt boxing promoter named Benko (Rod Steiger). Together, they scheme to deceive Toro Moreno (Mike Lane), a clumsy, seven-foot giant, and the public intobelieving Moreno has a at the heavyweight title. Through a carefully arranged series of fixed fights, Toro is duped into believing that he is a capable contender, only to have his dreams - and his huge body - shattered when he is brutally beaten in a genuine fight with the heavyweight champion. Jersey Joe Walcott appears as Moreno's trainer, with former boxing great Max Baer as the heavyweight champ. THE HARDER THEY FALL is an intriguing film in the tradition of Bogart classics. .co.uk Review ------------- A movie that proved a fine swansong for Humphrey Bogart, The Harder They Fall is a gripping drama set against a background of fixed boxing matches. Not so much about the fights as the exploitation of the sport, the film is based on a novel by Budd Schulberg, whose O-winning screenplay for On the Waterfront (1954) helped turn Rod Steiger into a star. Here Steiger delivers an equally bravura performance as the chillingly corrupt manager, Nick Benko, a man who will do anything to turn a buck. Bogart meanwhile is outstanding as unemployed sports writer Eddie Willis, hired against his better judgement to promote a no-hope Argentinean boxer, Toro Moreno (Mike Lane). Powerfully written, if built around the unlikely premise of building a 10th-rate fighter into a world-class contender, the drama is essentially a battle for Willis's soul as he is torn between money and conscience. Though the scenes with Bogart and Steiger facing off are the strongest and a veritable masterclass of hardboiled characterisation, Mark Robson, who also helmed the Kirk Douglas boxing classic Champion (1949), directs with a convincingly dirty realism, the final punishing and bloody match a clear influence on Scorsese's Raging Bull (1980). On the DVD: The Harder They Fall's anamorphic 1.77:1 transfer is excellent with only one brief scene showing any significant print damage. Burnett Guffey's noir-ish black-and-white cinematography looks sharp and fresh as the day it was , with only minimal grain. The mono sound is strong and clear, without a hint of distortion or compression. The only extra is a scored gallery of s and lobby cards from other Bogart films available on Columbia. There are dubbed versions in French, German, Spanish and Italian, and a plethora of subtitle options. --Gary S Dalkin