Reviews (8)

Some guys can sell out; others just can't
Bogart does both. Good story, good film. Good performances. Interesting. Well worth seeing. Good dvd.

A Knockout
Whenever a new boxing film is being hyped, we inevitably get someone's list of great boxing films, yet The Harder They Fall never makes those lists. Screenwriter Philip Yordan and director Mark Robson took Budd Schulberg's tough but somewhat diffuse and repetitive novel and condensed it into an excellent film adaptation that is still a timely indictment of the corruption and brutality in the world of boxing. This was Bogart's last film, and actor's last films are generally terrible, but Bogie went out with a classic. The performances are generally excellent, and the scenes with Steiger and Bogart work beautifully, with Steiger's aggressive, fast-talking, almost lunging forward attack matched by Bogart's wary, laconic, reactive style of acting. Also excellent is the underrated Nehemiah Persoff, an Actors Studio alumnus, who himself resembles Steiger and who gave excellent support in numerous films and TV shows. Perhaps the film's only flaw is Bogart's 11th hour moral conversion, but it is acceptable enough and does lead to a final, excellent scene between Bogart and Steiger.

BRUTAL FOR IT'S ERA
absolutely Bogart's greatest and valedictory performance. Bogart exited this life with his greatest performance. not only was this Bogart's best but this film also boasts a stellar ensemble of actors. this film dares to explore the criminal racketeering that once plagued the sport of professional boxing. the brutal realistic portrayals given by the actors is unsurpassed. from the intimidating performance by Steiger especially to the moral dilemma of Bogart is no less than incredible. an absolute must and imperative for one's film library. almost unbearable final fight to watch.

as for the DVD, some artifacts present but overall a good transfer. the audio is stereo and also good.

Bogart's last film...
Harder They Fall is Humphrey Bogart's last performance on the silver screen before he passed away in 1957. He plays the character Eddie Willis, a former sportswriter, who is hired by Nick Benko (Rod Steiger), a shady boxing manager, to promote an incompetent giant boxer by the name Toro. In the process of promoting Toro, Eddie faces several humorous situations where he has to make the wrong moral choice in order to reach his goal of making a lot of money. Eddie's greed causes him to lose friendships, lie, and hurt people; however, he convinces himself that he must do this in order to achieve wealth. The process of learning the value of human life and money is an emotionally painful journey for Eddie, since he becomes burdened with the heavy feelings of guilt. Harder They Fall is an interesting film about greed and betrayal that is set in the boxing world. As the story unfolds the audience is offered high class drama that is carried by a well prepared cast, which offers a first-rate cinematic experience.

A great boxing movie that was also Bogart's last
This is far from one of Bogart's best movies, but it is still well worth watching. In this film, he plays a washed-up sportswriter who has been hired as a PR man for gigantic South American boxer named Toro Morena. The problem is, Morena, despite his immense size, can't box at all. Bogart and Morena's crooked owner, magnificently played by Rod Steiger, manage to take him up the heavyweight ranks by fixing a string of fights.

Of all the sports, none have inspired as many excellent films as boxing. In fact, there may be more first-rate boxing films than first rate films from all other sports combined. There are probably a good dozen very, very good fight films, and this belongs to their number.

The tension in the film derives from the ultimate conflict between Bogart's inherent decency and Steiger's unmitigated exploitativeness. The two had great onscreen chemistry in their scenes together. They employed very different acting styles, Steiger being one of the first Method actors to enjoy success in the movies. Bogart was strictly old school, but he not only held his own, he dominated their scenes together.

A couple of real life boxers played major roles in the film. Jersey Joe Alcott plays Toro Moreno's trainer. Toro Moreno himself was very loosely based on the career of Primo Canera (with the difference that Canera actually could box, the similarities being that he was a remarkably tall heavyweight who killed a man in the ring). Max Baer, former heavyweight champion and the father of Max Baer Jr. (Jethro on THE BEVERLY HILLBILLIES), plays heavyweight champion Buddy Brannen. The irony in this is that Baer in real life became heavyweight champion by beating Primo Canera. The in-the-ring shots are among the finest that have ever been filmed in boxing pictures. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Worse than video!
Where do I begin. Let's start with the sound quality. If your listening through headphones, don't bother using the left earcup, there's nothing there. The right cup is filled with overpowering analog hiss. I could barely hear the dialog. It's not letterboxed or widescreened, it's full screened, or rather left hand justified. If there is any action where the camera has to move quickly to follow it (and there is), the pixils rudely take over. What a mess. If you're a hardcore Caan fan, perhaps you'll suffer through this. The majority of the movie is narrated by some 35 year old woman attempting an 89 yr. old voice. How does it end? I don't know. At around 23 minutes, my DVD crapped out and my player was audibly struggling to find a track. The only difference between this DVD and my DVD of "Boy in the plastic bubble" is "Bubble" at least played till the end. I just started a new catagory on my DVD shelf. The trash can right next to it.

OLDIE BUT GOODIE
A wronged Indian women and a framed cowboy take their revenge on a small corrupt town, razing it overnight. Absolutely, payback time on the range! ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Just Mindless Fun
A rich elderly woman is being conned by a fraudulent psychic. The psychic uses a unknown ritual to try to fool a true psychic that was hired to see if the fraud was for real. Of course, as you can guess, the fraud successfully conjures up a demon, and of course, a few of the guests die one by one.

I enjoyed the characters in this movie and the demon is a bit corny, but it's still a fun flick. The dialogue and acting is good. I've seen a lot of poorly made B movies, and this isn't one of them. The lighting, dialogue and character development make this an enjoyable movie.

I wish I knew whether the upcoming DVD was widescreen or not? This flick, if the transfer to DVD is good, would be a nice addition to my collection.

IN EACH OF US THERE IS EVIL, HOPE HE DOESN'T FIND IT.
IN EACH OF US THERE IS EVIL, HOPE HE DOESN'T FIND IT.

More like, in each movie there is some evil, but hope you don't find this one.
Todays movie, boys and ghoulies, is called DEMON KEEPER. And DO NOT watch this one alone, you might die of bordem!!!

Now I can just see in my mind as I watched this flick, Cheryl Latimer, Joe Tornatore, and Maurice Smith the film makers sitting around having a pre-production talk. One says, "well we have a pretty typical lack-luster script, and such and such for a budget. What should we do to make it a sellable commodity?
"Well", said another. "Let's get a star. Dirk Benidict, was pretty cool in Battle Star Galactica, and he's outa work since the A-Team folded. Let's spend half the budget and get him."
"Sounds good", says the third, "and lets spend three quaters of what's left on a really wicked looking Demon Costume."
"But the demon is incorporal according to the script, it doesn't have a form.",someone interjects.

"So what?!? We'll put some hot looking girls in it and get them semi nude and besides it would make a good cover. But what do we do with the rest of the budget."
"Well, we can hired the rest of the actors and use it for production and sets and stuff like that

And so they made a movie......

I bought this flick years ago from a video store going out of business for about [money]. I'm sure it must have been the cool looking cover.
I watched it once and it sat on my video shelf for years, I never had the urge to watch it again, until one day the girl friend was picking through my movies looking for something to watch. She says, "What's this DEMON KEEPER thing?"
And so the forces of really bad demonic movies was released once again....

The movie is pretty forgetable, although Dirk Benedict fans will love his performance as an arrogant expert on the supernatural. The Demon Costume looks cool on the cover but comes off pretty laughable when animated ... Read more