starring John Garfield, Lilli Palmer, Hazel Brooks
directed by Robert Rossen
104 minutes
Charley Davis (John Garfield) aspires to be a professional boxer. His father, the owner of a small candy store, is killed by mob violence. Charley's mother does not approve of her son's chosen life style but Charley is determined.
Charley meets and falls in love with Peg (Lilli Palmer), a painter. She, unlike his mother, tries to be supportive. Charley has his heart set on making it in boxing to the point that he accepts an offer from Roberts, a fight promoter, to fix some fights. Charley can't see the dangerous path he is taking, even after Ben Chaplin, another boxer, gets seriously injured.
Charley's devotion to his career drives a wedge between himself and Peg. He starts hanging out with Alice (Hazel Brooks) who like him seems most interested in money. Charley eventually goes back to Peg after Ben dies. The climax of the film is a fight in which Charley has to defend the championship belt. He has already made a deal with Roberts to throw the fight and has to decide whether to honor that deal or be true to himself.
Most of this movie is told as one big flashback which begins about 10 minutes into the movie and ends about 10 minutes before the movie ends.
Charley was stubborn and lacked a grasp on reality. I had trouble feeling sympathy for him. John Garfield was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role but I don't think I would rate his performance quite that highly. I think I might have appreciated it more if I had seen more internal struggle on his part. His performance was a little too one note for me.
The movie was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing (Original Screenplay by Abraham Polonsky but he did not win. The movie won its only Academy Award for Best Film Editing.
One of my problems with this movie is that the ending didn't feel earned. It was too upbeat and unrealistic. I can't help but notice that it seems like this movie violated the code and got away with it. Charley by all rights, based on my understanding of the code, should have been punished for getting involved in fixing fights, but he doesn't. Either I don't understand the code or there's something here that I missed.
I want to like this movie more than I do. It isn't bad it just isn't great. I don't regret seeing it but I'm not going to put it on a pedestal the way some people have.
Notes
Lloyd Gough played the part of Roberts. He has been in a few other things I have seen including Sunset Blvd. (1950), The Front (1976), and The Invaders 1.16 (Wall of Crystal).
Anne Revere played the part of Charley's mother even though she is just nine years older than John Garfield.
Hazel Brooks was also in Sleep, My Love (1948) which I saw last month.
Jospeh Pevney played the part of Charley's friend Shorty. He had a fairly limited career as an actor but outside of acting he is known for directing episodes of many TV shows including multiple episodes of The Munsters, Star Trek, and The Incredible Hulk.
Canada Lee played the part of Ben Chaplin. This is one of just six screen credits he has according to IMDb. I saw one of the other films he was in, Lifeboat (1944), in the 1980s.
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