RyothChatty ridiculous rating

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

poe426 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.

SnoopyStyle Respected sports writer Eddie Willis (Humphrey Bogart) is jobless when his newspaper folds. Fight promoter Nick Benko (Rod Steiger) wants to hire him as the press agent for his new heavyweight fighter Toro Moreno. The problem is that Toro is a big dumb giant stiff. Benko schemes to rig Toro's fights with nobodies building up his resume and get him a fight with the heavyweight champion Buddy Brannen.Bogart is terrific as the morally conflicted Eddie. It's impressive considering he was unwell and this is his last film. He still carries the movie. Steiger is incredible as the bombastic croaked promoter. It's also a fine morality tale. The fight game has always been corrupted and this takes it to the extreme.

jarrodmcdonald-1 A lot of big time film stars fade early and finish their motion picture careers uneventfully. But not Humphrey Bogart, who easily goes out with a bang in The Harder They Fall. The actor, in his last motion picture, turns in a brave performance as a cynical press agent who seeks to expose corrupt conditions in the world of boxing. The story is scripted by Budd Schulman and directed by Mark Robson. One suspects that had he lived, Bogart would have done more of these kinds of social message dramas. It's a refreshing change after a career playing countless gangsters and other assorted bad guys. And at least he went out on top. He didn't have to play second leads and supporting parts or even do television. Long live Bogart.

NewEnglandPat 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.