SET-UP, THE (director: Robert Wise; screenwriters: From poem by Joseph Moncure March/Art Cohn; cinematographer: Milton Krasner; cast: Robert Ryan (Bill "Stoker" Thompson), Audrey Totter (Julie Thompson), George Tobias (Tiny), Alan Baxter (Little Boy), Wallace Ford (Gus), Percy Helton (Red), Hal Fieberling (Tiger Nelson), Archie Leonard (Blindman), Dwight Martin (Glutton), James Edwards (Luther Hawkins), Darryl Hickman (Shanley), David Clarke (Gunboat Johnson), Edwin Max (Danny), Lynn Millan (Bunny), 1949)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
This is one of the top fight films ever made, along with Raging Bull and Body and Soul. It is reportedly the role Robert Ryan, the college boxing whiz liked the best, and the one he probably gave his best performance in. It is the only boxing film developed from a poem. It was fleshed out into a screenplay by boxing aficionado Art Cohn. The director, Robert Wise, wanted to use the ring for a metaphor about the corrupt world, using the innocence of a boxer against those in the business who tried to make him take a dive. Wise captured the mood of the smoked-filled arena, the fans' reactions, and the dirtiness of the boxing world. The dark streets of Los Angeles, the brutality of the sport, and the seedy hotels where the struggling boxers reside, were photographed in a gritty manner, giving the film its noir look.
Stoker (Ryan) is a 35-year-old washed-up fighter. He is on the card for tonight's fight at the Paradise City arena, a second-rate boxing venue. His wife Julie (Totter) can't stand to see him fight any more, so she waits for him back in the seedy hotel, though he is hoping she shows up to watch him. Becoming restless, she wanders the streets that are filled with arcades, bars, and chop suey places. She stops on a bridge to watch the passing trolleys below and then listens intently to a radio ringside report of the boxing match coming from a newspaper stand, and is relieved to find that it was not her husband who was knocked out.
Tiny (Tobias), Stoker's manager, has arranged with the underlings of a notorious gangster, Little Boy (Baxter), to fix the four round fight after the second round. After receiving fifty dollars for the fix, he decides not to tell Stoker, figuring he couldn't beat the much younger fighter, Tiger Nelson (Hal), anyway. His cut man, veteran character actor with the high-pitched, squeaky voice, Red (Percy), who is told by Tiny that he got thirty dollars for the fix, receives his cut of ten dollars but thinks it is mistake not to tell Stoker about the fix.
The film looks as if it is being shot in real time, as Stoker awaits in the dressing room, exchanging good-natured barbs with the other boxers present and listening to their nervous chatter. They are all dreamers, filled with their own apprehensions and wants, men caught in a world where they have little chance of succeeding, but that million to one shot to make it to the top is what motivates them.
The boxing scenes looked real. Stoker feeling he could win, goes all out, even as his face is pummeled. The crowd was made up of an assortment of fans, some there to wager, others to eat and enjoy themselves, some getting a kick out of the mayhem seen, and a blind man- having his pal give him a detailed description of the fight- just loving the violence. After the third round, Little Boy's cronies realized they had been double-crossed, as Stoker was holding his own, refusing to go down. At this point, Tiny tells his fighter the fix is in. But it is too late, Stoker's pride makes him want to win the fight, as he proceeds to knock out Tiger.
Confronted in the dressing room by the gangsters, trapped alone in an empty dark arena, as Tiny and Red have fled, the boxer runs into an alley, where the gang beats him and breaks his hands with a brick so that he'll never box again. This turns out to be a blessing in disguise for Julie, who calls for an ambulance for her noble husband. She asks his forgiveness for not attending the fight, then assures him that they "both won tonight."
Ryan's performance gives this film the human drama the other great boxing movies just couldn't deliver. His drive to win despite knowing what that victory will ultimately mean and the noble way he handles himself, provides this film with an insiders look into the boxer's virile nature and the foolish pride he has in winning.
The Set-Up was one of the few films ever made in which narrative time and screen time are the same-72 minutes. Wise brought in former boxing professional John Indrisano to make sure the choreographed fight scenes were realistic. Wise, striving for realism above all, visited the boxing places around the Long Beach area, basing the boxing fans chosen for the film on the same type of people he saw while attending those matches.
REVIEWED ON 2/22/2000 GRADE: A-
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
ozus@sover.net
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