Details

Release year: 1947

Storyline

A talented boxer's young career hits difficult terrain when an unethical promoter takes interest in him.

Top credits

Directors

Robert Rossen

Writers

Abraham Polonsky

Cast

John Garfield — Charley Davis
Lilli Palmer — Peg Born
Hazel Brooks — Alice
Anne Revere — Anna Davis

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Awards

1 win & 2 nominations

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Did you know

• To get a more fluid camera movement in the boxing ring, cinematographer James Wong Howe filmed the fight while holding the camera and being pushed by an assistant wearing roller skates.

• This film was originally supposed to have been a straight biography of three-time boxing champion Barney Ross. But after Ross publicly admitted that he had become a heroin addict from having received morphine to treat his wounds during WWII, the studio instead decided to turn the film into a fictionalized portrayal of Ross's boxing career. Ross sued and won a $60,000 settlement.

• An extremely large number of the cast and crew on the film - writer Abraham Polonsky, actors John Garfield, Anne Revere, Lloyd Gough, Canada Lee, Art Smith, Shimen Ruskin, producer Bob Roberts and even, albeit to a lesser extent, cinematographer James Wong Howe - found themselves either blacklisted or grey-listed during the HUAC witch-hunts of the 1950s, while director Robert Rossen only avoided that fate by naming names.