Independent Films, Film Profiles

The Harder They Fall
by Mark Robson

The Harder They Fall (1956) is a film noir directed by Mark Robson. It features Humphrey Bogart in his final movie role. The character Eddie Willis (Bogart) is based on the career of boxing writer and event promoter Harold Conrad. The film was written by Philip Yordan and based on the 1947 novel by Budd Schulberg.The drama tells a "thinly disguised a clef account of the Primo Carnera boxing scandal." With Challenger "Toro" based on Carnera and Champ "Brannen" based on Max Baer; ironically both Baer and Carnera had starred in 1937 movie The Prizefighter and the Lady in which Carnera is the world champ and Baer is his challenger.Sportswriter Eddie Willis is broke after the newspaper he works for goes under. He's hired by boxing promoter Nick Benko to act as publicist for his new boxer, a giant, slow-witted, and untalented Argentinian named Toro Moreno.Eddie knows Benko to be corrupt and unethical, but accepts the job because the money's good. Unbeknownst to Toro, all of his fights are fixed to make the public believe that the boxer is for real. Eddie promotes the fights, but begins to feel guilty about his work. The film climaxes when Benko arranges for Toro to fight a vengeful heavyweight champ, a fight that can't be fixed. The champ "Buddy Brannen", is shown in an unfounded characterization as bloodthirsty.Predictably, Toro loses the championship match, getting brutally beaten in the process. He pleads with Eddie that he wants to quit fighting and go home. Eddie discovers that the managers have rigged the accounting books so that they get all the money and Toro is left with nothing, intending to have him fight another series of fixed matches. Eddie hustles Toro onto a plane and sends him back to Argentina, giving Toro his own cut of the proceeds. When confronted by the managers, Eddie defies them, then begins writing an exposé about corruption in the boxing world.