The Harder They Fall
Short description
Eddie Willis, a sportswriter who has just lost his newspaper job and is short on money, is approached by Nick Benko, a promoter with a shady reputation. Benko wants Eddie to build up his newest fighter, Toro Moreno, an Argentine heavyweight of enormous size but little skill. Eddie soon learns that Toro cannot win a fair fight, and that Benko plans to fix his bouts and profit from bets against him once he reaches a championship match. As the public comes to believe in Toro, Eddie has to weigh his own payday against what the scheme is doing to the fighter.
The film was directed by Mark Robson, the sixth of the thirteen films he directed in chronological order, between Phffft and Peyton Place. Philip Yordan wrote and produced the screenplay. Humphrey Bogart plays Eddie, with Rod Steiger as Benko, Jan Sterling as Eddie's wife Beth, Mike Lane as Toro, and former fighters Max Baer and Jersey Joe Walcott in supporting roles. The credited cast runs to 120 names.
Released in May 1956, the Columbia Pictures drama took in about 1 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.5 out of 10 from around 10,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.2 out of 10 from roughly 160 votes, while a small set of critics' reviews averages 7.6 out of 10, a slightly warmer figure than the audience scores on either site.
What's left behind the scenes
- In this film, noir star Humphrey Bogart played his final film role. He died eight months after the film's premiere.
- The film featured several well-known former professional boxers, including Jersey Joe Walcott, who was the world heavyweight boxing champion in 1951-52, Max Baer, Pat Comiskey, and Joe Greb.
- In May 1991, in an interview, Schulberg stated that the prototype for Eddie Willis was journalist, press agent, screenwriter, and boxing promoter Harold Conrad.
- The film is based on the novel "The Harder They Fall" by Budd Schulberg (1947).
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
