Originally an Emmy-winning "Playhouse 90" drama by Rod Serling (of "Twilight Zone" fame) starring Jack Palance, Ralph Nelson (Lilies of the Field, The Wrath of God, Father Goose, Once a Thief) made his big-screen directing debut with Anthony Quinn as "Mountain" Rivera, a punch-drunk boxer risking blindness with every punch to the head he takes. (And since his opponent in the opening fight is Cassius Clay before he took the name of Mohammed Ali, many punches land.)

Mountain has no education and no skills other than boxing, and his boxing skills are not sufficient to protect him from being beaten up, but he refuses to take a fall, which considerably frustrates his sleazy manager Maish Rennick (Jackie Gleason). Rennick is deep in debt to Ma Greeny (a bulldagger credited as "Madame Spivy").

Mickey Rooney plays "Army," who has been Mountain's trainer throughout his long (111-fight, 17-year)--if not particularly distinguished--fight career. Employed by Rennick, Army does not want Mountain to take a fall in a fixed fight or to go into professional wrestling, the expedient Rennick comes up with to pay some of his debts. Along the way, a prim employment counselor, Grace Miller (Julie Harris), takes a special interest in Mountain, attracted and repelled to the hulk's way of treating "dames," a category in which she had never thought of herself being in.

Although I think his slurred speech was overkill, Quinn manages to make the broken-down, punch-drunk fighter sympathetic. It is one of his best performances. Rooney delivered his best performance as the resilient Army, and Gleason played Remmick's desperation in ways that draw some sympathy despite his despicable emotional blackmail and ongoing cheating of the infantile Mountain. (At least he feels guilty about what he does! Gleason's other great big-screen performances were in "The Hustler" and in Nelson's Soldier in the Rain.) Harris (East of Eden) was somewhat typecast and had a difficult part. (Reputedly, Kim Hunter played it better in the original version, so perhaps it was not unplayable.)

The ending, differing from that of the teleplay, provides another instance of what I see as the leitmotif of Ralph Nelson movies: a leap of grace. Mountain rises above the indignities, redeeming the exploitative claims of "friendship," making them genuine in what most would view as demeaning himself, but I think is self-mortification for spiritual purposes. (It's difficult to interpret the ending without "spoiling" the plot for those who haven't seen the movie.)

The pathos of athlete entertainers cast aside as broken-down before they are 40 (and, often, before they are 30, and, sometimes, before they are 20...) is a recurrent tragedy for the athletes. Not wanting to take falls in fixed fight is a staple of boxing movies (The Set-Up, Body and Soul, etc.). These patterns are filled with individual touches by Serling, Nelson, and Quinn in what remains a particularly poignant contribution the genre of sports movies (with very little of the dark humor of "North Dallas Forty," one of my favorites).

The sordid world of the fight world was photographed noirishly by Arthur Ornitz (who also shot "Charly" for Nelson). The DVD image transfer is quite good and the audio transfer isadequate. The only extras are trailers for "Barabbas" (with Quinn) and "The Greatest" (about Ali). The film deserves better: specifically, intereviews of Harris and Rooney.

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Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD