"Money's not evil in and of itself. The purpose for which it's used is the determining factor."

Corruption in boxing is not a new topic in movies. It seems that ever since the invention of the medium, there have been tales about boxing and the corruption in the sport. In fact, boxing is probably the most popular sport movies have dealt with. Of course in recent times, as the sport has lost a lot of popularity, there have been few boxing movies. But in the 1950s, the sport was still going very strong. The last appearance made by Humphrey Bogart on screen came in the boxing movie The Harder They Fall (1956).

The movie was based on the best-selling novel written by Budd Schulberg. It tells of the corruption of the boxing business, certainly not a new topic. As with most corruption in boxing stories, this one deals with greedy managers exploiting uneducated fighters and paying off boxers who will take a fall.

The Harder They Fall follows around washed-up newsman and boxing reporter, Eddie Willis, played by Bogie. He still has a lot of connection in the boxing world and when manager Nick Benko asks if he wants to be a part of his PR staff, Willis says he possibly will if the fighter is any good. Well the fighter is not. The fighter, Toro Moreno, is an import into this country. He looks great when he walks by people, as he is so much bigger than everyone, but he has no boxing skills at all. Willis hates the fighter and doubts his ability, but needs the money so he agrees to help Benko by being a public relations man.

Willis draws up interest in the tomato can’s fights and Benko makes sure the fighters Toro faces are paid to take a fall. Of course, this being the era with no television broadcasting, much less pay-per-view, the only medium covering fights is the newspaper. So Toro becomes a sensation of the newspaper world and the boxing world, despite not being seen by many people.

As Toro works his way up the boxing hierarchy he begins to believe that he has some boxing skills. Of course he has improved, but so have the fighters he is facing. They can easily knock him out, but they are paid better to take falls.

Eventually, Toro befriends Willis, who begins to feel sorry for the foreigner. He is a man in a strange land who has some talent, but has been taken advantage of. Willis agrees to help protect Toro. Of course Benko figures out that Toro is having other ideas – like leaving the boxing world and America. Benko can’t let his cash cow leave, so he takes action to keep Toro in the United States, despite his being exposed as a fraud of a boxer. Toro depends on the friendship of Willis and even though he does betray him the first time, Willis does get Toro safely out of the country.

With Willis going against the will of the Benko mob, it is only a matter of time before he is eliminated. In the waning moments of his career, life and the movie, Willis sits down at his type writer and begins to pound out the whole story under the title, “The Harder They Fall.”

This was not the best send off for one of Hollywood’s greatest stars. Bogie is the narrator of the story, but the Benko character, played by Rod Steiger is a better part. Steiger was a Method actor, while Bogie was a naturalistic one. By the time the late50s rolled around, the Method actor was replacing the naturalistic one in all the best parts, this movie is an example of that. With Bogie’s death a year later, the naturalistic style of acting would be dealt a severe blow.

The legacy of Humphrey Bogart is one filled with characters who were idealist, but not completely ignorant of the imperfect world they lived in. Even Bogie’s gangster characters of the 1930s had traces of this in them. His most famous characters, Rick Blaine, Charlie Allnut, Sam Spade, are filled with this quality.

Bogie is not mentioned today as much as contemporaries like Marlon Brando or John Wayne, yet when AFI created a list of the 50 greatest stars, Bogie was at the top of the leading man category. He might not be as well known today as he should be, but those who have seen Casablanca or The Big Sleep know that he will never be forgotten.