The Set Up [DVD]

The Set - Up Roberta Wisea is in my own opinion one of the best movies ever about boxing and the people in and around the ring. Although It lacks some of the standard film noir elements it nevertheless ranks as one among the best representatives of the genre. Robert Ryan gives a strong and very powerfull performance of a man who is not willing to sell his own honor and fights to the last regardless of consequences. In the fighting scenes he is very convincing, which is not surprising, since while he was in college he was 4 years heavyveight boxing champion. But his greatest momrent in the film comes when he is cornered in the dead-end alley and the four gangsters slowly approach to him. Jou can plainly read all emotions from his face, no word was necessary. Mixing of fear, worrying, desperately looking for some way out but in the same moment he clearly knows there is none. Unforgettable!
Robert Wise, known for his meticulous work, did spend some time with real boxers inside their dressing rooms, and captured very good the atmosphere among them while they are waiting for their own fight. All the worries, loose conversations, just to kill time, anticipation, hopes, expectations, naturalism to the bone, almost as if you watch some documentary. Although story is not a bit complicated, it is even predictable at a moments we should bear in mind that this movie is based on excellent narrative poem of the same title, by Joseph Moncure March.
Another intresting experiment for that time, two years prior to Fred Zinemann's High Noon, is the unfolding of the story in real time. 73 minutes in a liftime of the aged boxer, at the sunset of his career who still hopes that he's just «one punch away» from fullfilment of his dreams. That one punch he's been waiting for thirty five years.
Truely remarkable movie!!!

RKO Radio Pictures presents "THE SET-UP" (1949 72 min/B&W) -- Starring: Robert Ryan, Audrey Totter, George Tobias, Alan Baxter & James Edwards

Directed by Robert Wise

Over-the-hill boxer Bill 'Stoker' Thompson insists he can still win, though his sexy wife Julie pleads with him to quit. But his manager Tiny is so confident he will lose, he takes money for a "dive" from tough gambler Little Boy...without bothering to tell Stoker. Tension builds as Stoker hopes to "take" Tiger Nelson, unaware of what will happen to him if he does.

This is one of the top fight films ever made, along with Raging Bull and Body and Soul. It is reportedly the role Robert Ryan, the college boxing whiz liked the best, and the one he probably gave his best performance in. It is the only boxing film developed from a poem. It was fleshed out into a screenplay by boxing aficionado Art Cohn. The director, Robert Wise, wanted to use the ring for a metaphor about the corrupt world, using the innocence of a boxer against those in the business who tried to make him take a dive. Wise captured the mood of the smoked-filled arena, the fans' reactions, and the dirtiness of the boxing world. The dark streets of Los Angeles, the brutality of the sport, and the seedy hotels where the struggling boxers reside, were photographed in a gritty manner, giving the film its noir look.

* Special footnote: -- The Set-Up was one of the few films ever made in which narrative time and screen time are the same -72 minutes. Wise brought in former boxing professional John Indrisano to make sure the choreographed fight scenes were realistic. Wise, striving for realism above all, visited the boxing places around the Long Beach area, basing the boxing fans chosen for the film on the same type of people he saw while attending those matches.

Another RKO Radio Pictures Classics, with some of my favorite cast members from the past, Ryan, Totter and Tobias each one sharing their special talent with us, the audience.

Great direction by the legendary Robert Wise.

BIOS:
1. Robert Wise (Director)
Date of Birth: 10 September 1914 - Winchester, Indiana
Date of Death: 14 September 2005 - Los Angeles, California

2. Robert Ryan [aka: Robert Bushnell Ryan]
Date of Birth: 11 November 1909 - Chicago, Illinois
Date of Death: 11 July 1973 - New York City, New York

3. Audrey Totter
Date of Birth: 20 December 1918, Joliet, Illinois
Date of Death: Unknown

4. George Tobias
Date of Birth: 14 July 1901 - New York City, New York
Date of Death: 27 February 1980 - Los Angeles, California

Mr. Jim's Ratings:
Quality of Picture & Sound: 5 Stars
Performance: 5 Stars
Story & Screenplay: 5 Stars
Overall: 5 Stars [Original Music, Cinematography & Film Editing]

Total Time: 72 min on DVD ~ RKO Radio Pictures ~ (July 6, 2004)