The Set-Up Review

Overall 4.00 of 5 (by 1 user)

GeorgeChabot
Conyers, GA

Just one punch away!

DVD collector, Movie guru, Fan of Superb Productions, movie connoisseur, cult film connoisseur, fan of clever plots

Pros

Robert Ryan, Tells it like it is

Cons

Tells it like it is

JUN

2008

The Set-Up —

The Set-Up (1949)

The Set-Up is a terse look at life in the squared circle for those fighters who just never are going to be number one.

Robert Wise directed this movie and aimed to give a real time blow-by-blow depiction of one of the big bouts of a given night, therefore the clock figures prominently in the story as the street scene continually gives us a reading of the large outdoor clock outside the Paradise City Arena.

Robert Ryan is an over the hill boxer who still has dreams of going to the top. His wife tries to dissuade him from fighting but he insists on going, then she won't come watch as she always did before. The movie plays out with alternate scenes of each character and how they spend the fast moving 72 minute running time.

Ryan trudges across the square and enters the locker room where the other fighters are preparing for their bouts. There is lots of shop talk between the fighters. These are the same guys who will try to beat each other silly in the ring. An earlier scene had showed Ryan's manager accepting a payoff from a racketeer for Ryan to take a dive. This he neglects to tell Ryan, thinking he will lose anyway. Why share? This turns out to be a problem because Ryan is feeling unusually good tonight and believes he will win. This adds a little extra pathos to the fight as you see Ryan winning and his manager sad because of it.

Meanwhile Ryan's wife (Audrey Totter) is walking the streets of Paradise City pondering her future as she watches the trains entering and leaving the station. Wise skillfully keeps tabs on each of the protagonists throughout the movie.

Ryan's fight is with a much younger man and you get to see the whole four rounds in real time. As the fight unfolds, you get to know the spectators, also. Wise does a great job of highlighting the various bloodthirsty and other type fans who attend these boxing events. You can see what a great eye he has for visual set-ups and story telling. The film is entertaining and you see some really mild mannered types screaming "kill him - kill him!" One of them is the guy who played Dennis the Menace's dad on the TV series. Lots of colorful characters.

Ryan does win his bout and has to pay the consequences to the creepy bad guy, even though he didn't know he was supposed to lay down. You really can't trust your friends, it seems.

The Warner Bros DVD is presented in nice looking black and white in full frame theatrical format. The original studio was RKO and the downbeat story and direction makes The Set-Up a great film noir style sports movie. There is a full length commentary from director Robert Wise with side comments by Martin Scorsese included on the disk.

Last edited on Jun 01, 2008