That was an excellent one.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

It was so much more believable three or four decades ago. It's nothing to do with production or performances, it's that the writing leapfrogs certain points of development and the actors have to sell it. It looks like "On the Waterfront"; it wants to be "Requiem for a Heavyweight"; it has a plot equal to those but it just doesn't quite hit the mark and the fight choreography is what I remember as a kid realizing 'Hey, they're not really fighting'. Still, the story is good enough to make up for all that picking of nits. Classic

It was a typical day in the gym: the taptaptap of ropes being jumped, the bapbapbap of heavy bags being beaten, the ratatatatt of the noisy speedbag being belabored- and then, suddenly... silence. I looked around to see what had happened (the gym was NEVER quiet) and saw something I'll never forget: a man who appeared to be in his mid-30s, in fighting trim and dressed in boxing trunks and wearing a robe, a gym bag dangling from one hand. He walked through the dozens of silently staring young fighters and went to a heavy bag that hung unused in the middle of the room. He slipped on a pair of bag gloves and proceeded to throw punches at the bag. SLOWLY. One punch at a time. He TALKED to the bag as he worked, winding up and unloading heavy but very, very slow punches. He cursed the bag. Wound up. Drove in a hook, a looping right; paused; did it all again. We watched, in silence. The man was "punchy." He'd taken one too many shots to the head in his professional career and here he was, on the verge of homelessness, taking out his frustrations on the heavy bag. He didn't stay long, but he left a lasting impression on all of us. I quit the gym not long after. In THE HARDER THEY FALL, there's another fighter I'll never forget: he's the homeless man being interviewed for a television broadcast. It's a beautifully poignant scene, and it doesn't last long, but, for my money, it's the greatest scene in the movie. It concludes with the TV interviewer asking the old pug about his future plans. "WHAT future?" the man asks.

A relentless and rigorous dive into the world of Professional Boxing (circa 1956) and its effect on the Athletes and their exploitation and disregard. It is no surprise that this was a flop at the box-office at the time. It has since found its place in the Film-Noir world with its no holds barred expose of corruption.Notable for the last screen role for Humphrey Bogart it has much more to offer. Crisp hands-on Direction with the Cinematography and Lighting and Sets looking as bleak as the Story. It is an uncompromising and unsettling unfolding of a no-talent, but gargantuan, Boxer that believes he is unbeatable. But the fix is in and he is the last one to know. The result is heart-wrenching and real here, with the salty script and hard-boiled performances by all lending credulity with its cynicism and gutsy shout-out in an era of rigid conformity and a faith-based belief in the integrity of larger than life, celebrity based, and powerful institutions from Government to Show Business.This is a dreary and dreadful Fiction based on Fact. Character studies laced with as much pomp and spectacle as need be. There are unforgettable scenes with Bogart and Steiger as well as some just as memorable from the cheap seats.

Humphrey Bogart's final film pulls no punches in its indictment of boxing as it chronicles the career of an unfortunate pugilist who is duped into a series of tank jobs that get him a coveted but undeserved title shot. Bogart, an unemployed press agent, is hired to promote and build up the pretender at the request of an unscrupulous manager, played by Rod Steiger. The film notes the brutality, mob violence, insensitive owners and trainers, bookies, fixes, hopelessness and despair of fighters who take frightful punishment in the ring while managers and promoters profit. A brief segment of the picture dwells on the misfortunes of an ex fighter who wound up homeless, penniless and addle-brained after a career in the ring. The movie is grim and cynical, with a hard-edged undercurrent throughout. Bogart and Steiger have the expected showdown at the end as their differences clash but not before the dark underbelly of boxing has been exposed. Budd Schulberg's novel is the basis for this film and old pro Bogart is wonderful and gets strong support from Steiger and several others, especially Harold Stone and Nehemiah Persoff. Jersey Joe Walcott, in a few brief scenes, has a nice turn as a sympathetic trainer.