The Harder They Fall is a 1956 American boxing film noir directed by Mark Robson with a screenplay by Philip Yordan, based on Budd Schulberg's 1947 novel. It was Humphrey Bogart's final film role. It received an Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography, Black and White for Burnett Guffey at the 29th Academy Awards.
Plot
Sportswriter Eddie Willis, broke after the newspaper he works for goes under, is hired as a PR man by boxing promoter Nick Benko. Nick has recruited Toro Moreno, a towering Argentinian. Despite Toro's lack of fighting ability, Nick plans to use his size as a gimmick to draw fans to his fights. Unbeknownst to Toro and his manager, Luís Agrandi, all of his fights are fixed to make the public believe that he is a talented boxer.
Eddie feels misgivings about the scheme, but the lure of a huge payday is enough to make him ignore the venture's dishonesty. He is able to spin Toro as a legitimate up-and-comer even when his first fight goes so disastrously wrong that the boxing commission threatens to open an investigation.
As Benko's entourage crosses the country in a bus bedecked with advertising for the fighter, Toro gradually becomes a ranked contender. Throughout the tour, Eddie handles negotiations with other boxing managers to ensure Toro's fights remain fixed.
Toro fights Gus Dundee, whose previous fight with champion Buddy Brannen has left him with a broken neck. After the Toro fight, Dundee collapses and dies. Toro is overcome with guilt, thinking he killed Dundee, and wishes to return to Argentina. In a last-ditch attempt to protect the upcoming bout with Brannen, Eddie tells Toro the truth: that Brannen was responsible for Dundee's condition, that Toro is no fighter, and that all his fights have been fixed.
During the Brannen fight, Toro sustains a brutal beating. Afterward, Eddie learns that Benko has sold Toro's contract to another manager. While Eddie gets his promised payout of $26,000, Benko has rigged the accounting so Toro earns only $49.07 out of over $1 million in ticket revenue. Ashamed of his part in the farce and not wanting to see Toro exploited any further, Eddie gives Toro the $26,000 and puts him on a plane to Argentina before Benko's men can stop them.
Though Benko threatens to harm Eddie, Eddie begins writing an exposé about the corruption.
Cast
Humphrey Bogart as Eddie Willis
Rod Steiger as Nick Benko
Jan Sterling as Beth Willis
Mike Lane as Toro Moreno
Max Baer as Buddy Brannen
Jersey Joe Walcott as George
Edward Andrews as Jim Weyerhause
Harold J. Stone as Art Leavitt
Carlos Montalbán as Luís Agrandi
Nehemiah Persoff as Leo
Felice Orlandi as Vince Fawcett
Herbie Faye as Max
Rusty Lane as Danny McKeogh
Jack Albertson as Pop
Tina Carver as Nick's wife
Production
In early 1956, Bogart was diagnosed with esophageal cancer, and he died on January 14, 1957. Steiger recalled the actor's professionalism during production, even while coping with the disease:
"Bogey and I got on very well. Unlike some other stars, when they had closeups, you might have been relegated to a two-shot, or cut out altogether. Bogey didn't play those games. He was a professional and had tremendous authority. He'd come in exactly at 9am and leave at precisely 6pm. I remember once walking to lunch in between takes and seeing Bogey on the lot. I shouldn't have because his work was finished for the day. I asked him why he was still on the lot, and he said, 'They want to shoot some retakes of my closeups because my eyes are too watery'. A little while later, after the film, somebody came up to me with word of Bogey's death. Then it struck me. His eyes were watery because he was in pain with the cancer. I thought: 'How dumb can you be, Rodney'!"
The film was released with two different endings: one where Eddie Willis (inspired by sports writer Harold Conrad, according to Conrad) demanded that boxing be banned altogether, and the other where he merely insisted that there be a federal investigation into boxing. The video version contains the "harder" ending, while most television prints end with the "softer" message. Occasionally inaudible in a take, some of Bogart's lines as Willis are reported to have been dubbed in post-production by Paul Frees.