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October 18, 2022
Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema X
Flesh and Fury
Joseph Pevney - 1952
The Square Jungle
Jerry Hopper - 1955
World in My Corner
Jesse Hobbs - 1956
KL Studio Classics BD Region A three-disc set
This new Film Noir set is made up of three boxing movies. None are going to be considered on the same level as Rocky, Raging Bull, or older classics like Golden Boy or Champion, nor is that the aspiration of the filmmakers. What these films represent is a sub-genre of sports movies with the protagonist fighting in and out of the ring, learning a life lesson in less than an hour and a half running time. Tony Curtis stars in two of the films with Audie Murphy taking a break from playing a cowboy or soldier for the third entry. All three films have the same template of boxing as a means of achieving upward mobility for young men with otherwise limited futures.
Curtis plays a deaf-mute boxer in Flesh and Fury, winning his bouts in part because he is not distracted by the noise of the crowd. He attracts the attention of Jan Sterling who sees that Curtis gets the management he needs to become a welterweight champion while she gets to live the lifestyle she feels she deserves. Mona Freeman plays the journalist who shows Curtis that he can live beyond his self-imposed limits as a deaf-mute. Will Curtis choose good girl Freeman over the conniving Sterling? Will Curtis win his championship fight?
What the film does well is play with sound and its absence to provide a sense of Curtis' auditory experiences. Not simply silence, but also when he has hearing restored in one ear only to find the chatter at a cocktail party both physically painful and oppressive. The fight scenes are filmed competently. The scenes of training are sufficient reminders of Tony Curtis' athleticism in the early part of his career. The highpoint of film historian Daniel Kremer's commentary track is his examination of the career of blacklisted screenwriter Bernard Gordon. Also of interest is Kremer's finding parallels to Darius Marder's Sound of Metal.
In The Square Jungle, Tony Curtis is three years older, ten pounds heavier, and moves from grocery store clerk to Middleweight champion. A more star heavy film with Jim Backus as Curtis' alcoholic father, Ernest Borgnine as the bibliophile ex-con trainer, a young David Janssen who just seems to show up with no identifiable purpose, Carmen McRae glimpsed as a nightclub singer, Pat Crowley as the good girl, and Leigh Snowden as the not-so-good girl. I had hoped for a better film as it was produced by Albert Zugsmith and written by George Zuckerman, producer and writer respectively of Douglas Sirk's Written on the Wind and Tarnished Angels. Director Jerry Hopper is a journeyman doing competent work. What is memorable is this may be the only non-religious film that has quotes from the Talmud.
Audie Murphy is the poor and hungry pugilist in World in My Corner. Trying to keep to the straight and narrow, Murphy finds his only path to the championship is through the mob. Murphy also wants to make enough money to marry Barbara Rush, appearing here as the daughter of manipulative millionaire Jeff Morrow. Also in the cast is actor/dancer Tommy Rall in a straight dramatic role as Murphy's best friend from their slum neighborhood. Professional boxer Chico Vejar plays a mobbed up boxer and Murphy's main opponent in the ring. In the opening scene with Vejar checking on Murphy's boxing ability, he has the best line in the film cracking that he has seen better fights a hockey game.
Was World in My Corner one of the boxing films Martin Scorsese studied prior to filming Raging Bull? There is sometimes a documentary feel in the way the boxing matches are filmed here. Whether it is the camera or the choice of lens, the shots of the fighter are closer, tighter and more immediate than they are in the two other films in this collection. Hibbs opens the film aggressively with a close-up of Audie Murphy as if boxing the viewer.
Film historian Eddy Von Mueller provided the commentary tracks for the two latter films. The commentary for World in My Corner is of greater interest in reviewing how boxing was a regular part of early television broadcasting. Also of interest is a look at the careers of some of the professional boxers who play Murphy's opponents. All three films are from 2K restorations, with World in My Corner looking especially sharp with its crisp black and white cinematography.
Posted by Peter Nellhaus at October 18, 2022 06:13 AM