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I’m not sure if I could dream-up a better swan song for Humphrey Bogart than that of hardboiled reporter blowing the lid off of fixing in boxing. It combines everything that had made Bogart a major star: a combination of weary cynicism and righteous morality, dripping in noirish signposts and a brutality that becomes quite absorbing. This is not to say that the film is an undervalued masterpiece awaiting rediscovery, but it is a perfectly solidly made little stunner.
Bogart’s sports journalist falls on hard times when his paper folds and he takes a job working as PR man for a boxing ring. He quickly discovers that the whole thing is fixed and has to figure out whether or not he reports the truth or lines his pockets. The Harder They Fall is fairly enthralling because of Bogart’s prodigious talent for displaying his character’s moral dilemmas and making you root for their better angels to win out.
Director Mark Robson alternates between providing the film a gritty verisimilitude and occasionally dipping into preachiness. Sure, documentary footage about the brain damage the sport can cause is worth exploration, but its presentation here is sermonizing. It feels out of step with everything else going on around it. Robson was always a better director when his budgets were tight and his production limited in scope. Think of his work for Val Lewton like Isle of the Dead or The 7th Victim.
This occasional foray into by-the-numbers filmmaking is at odds with the brusquer elements that shine far brighter. It is this that keeps the film from achieving that next level. It’s also quite fetching to Jan Sterling, the poisonous wife of Ace in the Hole, perform as the righteous wife waiting for her husband to go straight, and she manages to hold her own against Rod Steiger quite well.
Even better are the fight scenes which clearly paved the way for Raging Bull in their realism and violence. It is when Steiger, as the sleazy manager, gets off the leash that so much of The Harder They Fall zips along with greater energy. It needed more of this and less of the patronizing and messaging. All things considered, this is a solid, fitting end for a career as titanic as Bogart’s and a reasonably good time.
