Main Cast: Robert Ryan, Audrey Totter, George Tobias, Alan Baxter, Wallace Ford
Release Year: 1949
Country: US
Run Time: 72 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
As shown by the clock face that opens and closes the film, The Set-Up takes place within a compact 72 minutes, with the action played out in "real time." Robert Ryan plays Bill "Stoker" Thompson, a washed-up boxer who refuses to give up his career despite the pleas of his wife Julie (Audrey Totter). There's little chance that he's going to win this evening's bout; still, Stoker's manager Tiny (George Tobias) has secretly made a deal with a crooked gambler (Alan Baxter). Stoker is to take a dive, a fact withheld from him until the fight is well under way. His last vestige of pride is aroused in the ring, but the story doesn't end there. The fight sequence is one of the most brutal ever filmed, with close ups of Ryan's pummeled face intercut with shots of screaming spectators in the throes of bloodlust. Adapted by Art Cohn from a narrative poem by Joseph Moncure March, The Set-Up is arguably Robert Ryan's finest starring film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Robert Wise's blistering tour de force on the fight game, a key influence on Martin Scorsese's seminal Raging Bull (1980), remains one of the best films on that world. An undefeated boxing champion while at Dartmouth, Robert Ryan gives what's likely his best performance as the over-the-hill pug who balks when ordered by his manager to throw a fight. Wise throws the harshest possible light not only on the well-known corruption of game, on the seediness of the milieu, and the grueling punishment absorbed by the fighters, but also on the febrile bloodlust of the fans, for whom the director reserves his greatest revulsion. As the film unfolds in "real" time, it touches briefly on the range of boxers on that night's card, and from the nervous young kid to the washed-up middle-weight, all are equally mesmerized by the mythology of their craft. In the main event, Ryan absorbs perhaps the worst pre-Scorsese battering on celluloid. Noir icon Audrey Totter evinces an unexpected tenderness as Ryan's concerned wife, and James Edwards is poignant as a fighter on the slide. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
Percy Helton - Red; Hal Fieberling - Tiger Nelson; Darryl Hickman - Shanley; Kenny O'Morrison - Moore; James Edwards - Luther Hawkins; David Clarke - Gunboat Johnson; Phillip Pine - Tony Souza; Edwin Max - Danny; Herbert Anderson - Husband; Helen Brown - Wife; John Butler - Man; Abe Dinovitch - Ring Caller; Paul Dubov - Gambler; Bernard Gorcey - Tobacco Man; William E. Green - Doctor; Donald Kerr - Man; Jess Kirkpatrick - Gambler; Tony Merrill - Man; Lynne Millan - Bunny; Everett Smith - Man; Billy Snyder - Barker; Charles Sullivan - Man; Ralph Volkie - Man; Charles Wagenheim - Hamburger Man; Constance Worth - Wife; Frank Mills - Photographer; Brian O'Hara - Man; Tommy Noonan - Man; Arthur Sullivan - Handler; Dan Foster - Man; Michael Lally - Handler; W.J. O'Brien - Pitchman; Al Rhein - Man; Sammy Shack - Man; Carl Sklover - Man; Jack Stoney - Nelson's Second; Herman Boden; Ruth Brennan - Woman; Lillian Castle; Kid Chissel - Handler; Gene Delmont - Handler; Walter Ridge - Manager; Dwight Martin - Glutton; Dave Fresco - Mickey; Frank Richards - Bat; Jack Raymond - Husband
Credit
Albert S. D'Agostino - Art Director, Jack Okey - Art Director, John Indrisano - Consultant/advisor, Edward Killy - First Assistant Director, Robert Wise - Director, Roland Gross - Editor, Constantin Bakaleinikoff - Musical Direction/Supervision, Gordon Bau - Makeup, Joe Norrin - Makeup, Bill Phillips - Makeup, Milton Krasner - Cinematographer, Richard Goldstone - Producer, James Altwies - Set Designer, Darrell Silvera - Set Designer, Phil Brigandi - Sound/Sound Designer, Clem Portman - Sound/Sound Designer, Art Cohn - Screenwriter
