The Harder They Fall

A boxing drama with Bogart (in his last role) typecast as the sports publicist who finally does the right thing and sets out to expose the syndicate, The Harder They Fall bears the hallmark of its producer/writer Philip Yordan all over it. Robson tries vainly to give the movie the look of a thriller with lots of shadows and bleak lighting, but Yordan consistently returns it to the field of melodrama by setting his drama in the home - as Bogart and his wife Sterling agonise over his job of exposing the fixed fights - rather than in the boxing ring.