Body and Soul ***** (1947, John Garfield, Lilli Palmer, Hazel Brooks, Anne Revere, William Conrad) – Classic Movie Review 2386

Director Robert Rossen’s vintage, hard-hitting classic 1947 boxing movie is a knockout. It is hailed as the first great film about boxing and can be viewed as a moral tale about the destructive evil temptation of money. You’d hardly know that from the advertising on the poster though – ‘the story of a guy that women go for!’

John Garfield stars at his punchy best as Charley Davis, the golden boy who punches below the belt to become a champ by devious means. The star is matched by Lilli Palmer, who plays Charley’s fiancée Peg, by William Conrad as promoter Quinn who takes him on, and by Anne Revere as his mother who doesn’t want him to be a fighter.

Francis D Lyon and Robert Parrish won an Oscar for the flashy editing, and Garfield was nominated as Best Actor and writer Abraham Polonsky for Best Original Screenplay. Both of them deserved to win, and so did cinematographer James Wong Howe for his outstanding film noir shooting work.

In the story, Charley wins fight after fight, but soon unethical promoter Roberts (Lloyd Goff) begins to show an interest in him. Charley’s success attracts various other shady characters, tempting him with different vices, and he’s faced with some difficult choices.

This brilliantly realistic, totally convincing film is indeed one of the great boxing movies, up there with Champion (1949), The Set-Up (1949), Rocky (1976) and Raging Bull (1980).

Also in the cast are Hazel Brooks, Joseph Pevney, Canada Lee, Art Smith, James Burke, Virginia Gregg, Peter Virgo, Joe Devlin, Mary Currier, Milton Kibbee, Artie Dorrell, Cy Ring and Tim Ryan.

It was remade (at least sort of) with Leon Isaac Kennedy in 1981.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2386

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