Powerful

One of the worst movies I've ever seen

Excellent film with a gripping story!

A Brilliant Conflict

Aged boxer Luis 'Mountain' Rivera (Anthony Quinn) is knock-outed by Cassius Clay. He is in bad shape and the doctor says he can't fight anymore. The bookie is after his manager Maish Rennick (Jackie Gleason) when Mountain lasted 7 rounds instead of 4. In addition to a $1500 bet, the bookie lost a bundle which he wants paid back. His trainer Army (Mickey Rooney) takes Mountain around trying to get a job. Social worker Grace Miller (Julie Harris) takes pity on the poor sap. Mountain has to swallow his pride and wrestle to save Maish's life. Anthony Quinn is amazing and so is Jackie Gleason. It is an unrelenting sad dark movie. It can also drag at times but the performances are so compelling.

After months in the "long wait" list on Netflix, I finally got this DVD delivered to me yesterday. Rod Serling had originally written this for live television before adapting this for film but this was the first version I've seen of it so I won't make comparisons to that one. Anyway, Anthony Quinn is a washed-up boxer who's now decommissioned because of his health which doesn't make manager Jackie Gleason's job any easier since he owes lots of money to a loan shark. Mickey Rooney who helped train Quinn just wants what's best for him but gets overruled by Gleason every time. Julie Harris is the employment clerk who takes a liking to Quinn enough to pull some strings for him but she really...oh, watch the film if you're curious enough. I'll just now say that this was quite a compelling drama that got me riveted throughout especially during the score of Lawrence Rosenthal when playing. Nice cameo by boxer Muhammad Ali when he was still known as Cassius Clay. P.S. I dedicate this review in memory of the recent passings of Julie Harris and Mickey Rooney.

Like so many others have already said, this is a great film, and one that I've watched many, many times since the late-1960's. Somewhere along the line, though, it was unceremoniously edited by someone who should've left it alone. The cut to which I refer involves an exchange between Maish Reynolds and Ma Greeney at the end of the film. Reynold's has narrowly escaped death at the hands of Greeney's goons, and in that moment, Reynold's vindictively intones to Greeney, "I wish you were a man." Greeney laughs out loud and replies, "Maishey darling, that's the nicest thing anyone ever said to me!" Maybe some of you remember it, but it has been many years since any version I've seen still has it.

I don't think I had ever seen this movie from beginning to end before but had the chance to do so when it came up recently on a cable channel. One feels, after watching it in its entirety, as one does after having listened to Mahler's 9th symphony - you are emotionally drained and devastated. The movie is Exhibit A in the prosecution's case that movies were better made in the past than today. It is impossible to imagine something this excellent being produced today. The movie makes no plays for cuteness or humor, and never seeks to soften its razor-sharp edges. It is grittily real from beginning to end. Actually, it surpasses reality, as all great art does, in letting us look starkly into the cruel realities of human existence. The acting is absolutely top-notch from all the leads. One is reminded that Jackie Gleason, after all the eye-popping excesses of "The Honetmooners" (as great as that series was, for what it was) was a truly superb actor. I cannot think of a movie in which Anthony Quinn surpassed himself in his role as Mountain Rivera - tough, beaten up, beaten down, loyal, honest and yet with a sensitive core deep within. Mickey Rooney shines just as brightly. The script is brilliant, economical, realistic, and revelatory of the characters; we forget just what a brilliant writer Rod Serling was. Of course one of the reasons the movie could not be made today is that it forgoes the obligatory happy ending (which was used, evidently, in the TV version); the movie follows its dark logic all the way to the final, devastating scene.