trimmerb1234 Like Marlon Brando in "On the Waterfront", a boxer is being paid to lose. Here though its not the character who should have been a contender, it's the movie which should have been and isn't. There's no question, it's a gritty and promising noir: the locale, action and spot-on realistic looking and sounding low rent end of professional boxing. With star, Robert Ryan, and these ingredients it instead rather disappoints and unsurprisingly failed to get awards.As others have mentioned, the scenes containing the peripheral characters are very well drawn. The problem is the rather slack telling of the main story about Stoker (the boxer) and his girlfriend. There are repeated sequences of her looking over a roadbridge at passing buses while she thinks about - what? And of Robert Ryan in the ring (during the fight) repeatedly glancing at the empty seat she should have occupied. The central fight is very long but. again the ebb and flow of the fight doesn't engage the viewer. In real life, some of the most enjoyed bouts are ones where the fighter who has been knocked down several times goes on to win the fight.Robert Ryan, in reality a former Marine and boxing instructor, is too commanding and too fit looking to appear like a washed up boxer in his last chance fight. The plot has him thought of as a no-hope loser. I've watched boxing (on TV) for many decades but was disappointed by the boxing sequences here. Real boxing happens fast - sometimes only understandable in slow motion. Boxers take advantage of moments of vulnerability. If a boxer is fast he can get two or more punches - with alternate hands - in very rapid succession before the opponent can take defensive action. Here almost every sin of movie fights was committed. Boxers pausing to admire the effect of a blow before delivering a follow up. Boxers rocking backwards and forwards after being hit. In reality boxers as a matter of pride and self-interest do their best to cover up being hurt. I assume it was Director Robert Wise who imposed this stagey staged fight. Perhaps a genuine professional boxer could have more convincingly faked a fight. Not something I guess a boxing instructor in the Marines would ever do - and it shows.

FedRev Just as there are anti-War films, The Set-Up is a powerful anti-Sports film; a Sports cousin to Paths of Glory. Though moderate in length it's exquisitely paced. It's a Film Noir that takes place in near real time, and the effect transports the audience straight into an authentic 1940s band-box boxing arena. The cigar smoke clouds the air and the gamblers shout at the fighters while clutching the sports section of the newspaper. The Set-Up focuses on a worn out boxer, Stoker, who's in the twilight of his career, hoping to muster one last shot at a title. Unbeknownst to him, his manager has fixed his fight with a gambler, but because Stoker has been losing so much anyway the manager didn't feel the need to tell the boxer he was supposed to take a dive. Prior to the fight his wife begs him to quit, but he pridefully ignores her plea, walking blindly into a situation over his head. The Set-Up is dark, gritty, and paints an utterly unforgiving landscape of corruption, greed, and exploitation in which athletes are merely lambs sacrificed for entertainment, and for profit.

st-shot Robert Wise has directed two of the most popular movies (West Side Story, The Sound of Music) in the history of cinema but he never made a film as well as The Set Up. One of the half dozen best fight films in cinema history it also a master class in film language as Wise and lens man Milton Krasner present the film in real time the moment the great (but uncredited)NY tabloid photog Arthur "Wee Gee" Fellig as timekeeper sounds the bell ringside to its powerful conclusion.The consensus of all concerned, including his manager and corner man (played to slimy perfection by George Tobias and Percy Helton)is that Stoker Thompson (Robert Ryan) is washed up. Playing on the under card in Paradise City his handlers guarantee a local thug he will take a dive against up and comer Tiger Nelson. Problem is they don't let Stoker in on it for fear he will gum up the works. They instead gamble on his rusty skills to betray him. When his main squeeze (Audrey Totter) has had enough and looks like she walks Stoker has nothing left but to prove everyone else wrong about him. A brutal bloody match ensues and when things don't go as predicted reinforcements are called in to deal with Stoker.With the clock running Wise and cinematographer Krasna economically flesh out a supporting casts of mugs and ticket buyers while establishing the state of Stoker's career in a couple of lengthy well choreographed takes. The fan's feelings are varied at first as Wise inter-cuts their reactions to the ring savagery but as it ramps up all are down with the pain being inflicted and Wise subversively includes us in as well as we root for Stoker standing alone.The fight scenes are choppily energized and fractured and Ryan's boxer build and skills bring each round a verisimilitude lost on doughier previous Hollywood boxing films. Ryan's display of emotions from confusion and anger to rage and fear rank with some of the finest acting of the era but like the film flew under the radar in its day while handsomer faces and stars like Garfield and Douglas (Champion) made glossier, bigger budgeted albeit fine fight films. But with more they lacked Wise's minimalist (no score, just ambient music,)approach awash in expressionistic portraits working within a precise time frame. From a pure finesse point The Set Up has more punching power than all its predecessors with only Raging Bull a suitable challenger to its belt in the last century.

classicsoncall You know what's odd? I couldn't even tell you who the World Heavyweight Champ is today. However there was a time, and I'm referring to my own youth here back in the Fifties and Sixties, that even if you weren't a boxing fan, the names of the champion and top contenders were a ubiquitous presence in newspaper headlines and the evening news. Times sure change.This is the tale of a hanger-on, an over the hill pugilist going by the name of Stoker Thompson, admirably portrayed by Robert Ryan in one of his classic roles. At the age of forty, he's playing a thirty five year old fighter against a much younger contender on the way up, backed by a flashy gangster the townies call Little Boy (Alan Baxter). I can't say I was much impressed with actor Ryan's ring style, virtually spending the entire match in an uncomfortable looking crouch position that seemed defensive most of the time. This really hit me when I learned that Ryan actually did some boxing in his college and military service days. I've never boxed, so what do I know, except that it looked awkward for someone who wanted very much to win just one more fight.The film gets a lot of mileage out of it's supporting players. George Tobias and Percy Helton are wonderfully smarmy and duplicitous in the mismanagement of their boy Stoker. Edwin Max as Little Boy's stooge Danny also conveys a lot more with his facials than with any lines he gets to deliver. Stoker's long suffering gal Julie conveys all the desperation and fatigue of someone who stands by her man, but hopes against hope that he'll give up the fight game to join the rest of humanity. In that scene on the bridge overlooking the trolleys, the torn up pieces of her fight ticket seem to flutter away like the last remnants of desire in her heart that maybe, just maybe she and Stoker can someday have a happy life together.So it's 1949, and things were a lot simpler back then, but here's what I don't get. The money involved in the fix seemed inconsequential to me, and I don't understand how a hood like Little Boy could get so worked up over fifty bucks. Fifty bucks! Sure, he was bankrolling his girlfriend Bunny on a side wager for a C-note, but how far was that fifty dollar pay off expected to go between Tiny (Tobias), Red (Helton) and Stoker? This is what Stoker was supposed to lay down for? Maybe I'm being naive, but an average week's pay to throw a preliminary fight seemed like small potatoes to me.Anyway, you don't have to be a boxing fan to get something out of this flick. Filmed in a crisp noir style, it captures all the seedy atmosphere of small town venues and smoke filled arenas that anyone could ask for. The ticket to this match is worth every penny.