The Set-Up

The Set-Up
by Robert Wise

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DVD details

Actor: Alan Baxter, Audrey Totter, George Tobias, Robert Ryan, Wallace Ford
Director: Robert Wise
Brand: Turner
Cinematographer: Milton R. Krasner
Editor: Roland Gross
Producer: Dore Schary
Producer: Richard Goldstone
Writer: Art Cohn
Writer: Joseph Moncure March
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 72 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-07-06
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Turner Home Ent

DVD Reviews of The Set-Up

DVD Review: The "Set-up" takes a dive
Summary: 3 Stars

When I was younger (I'm 56 now), I actually enjoyed watching a boxing match. But now when I think about what happens to many boxers after they retire, it's hard for me to admire the sport. Some young people (particularly some urban youth) believe that it can be a get rich ticket--a path out of the ghetto. What these young people don't understand is that boxing takes its toll physically and when you get older, your body will bear the effects of the earlier abuse. Case in point: Muhammed Ali and countless others who are unable to enjoy their old age.

In a sense, The Set-Up is a cautionary tale: it shows you exactly what the effect of boxing has on the body. It does not romanticize boxing and for that it should be commended. Nonetheless, as drama the Set-up is a dud. The main reason to watch it is the fantastic choreographed boxing scene (if you like boxing!) and the cinematography (the 'cameos' of the spectators are priceless). Otherwise, the main characters have little meat.

Robert Ryan (Stoker) plays a boxer who believes he has one fight left in him. He valiantly decides not to throw a fight and pays the price when gangsters beat him up after the fight is over and make sure he'll never fight again. Audrey Totter is his long-suffering girlfriend who has a wasted part, simply walking around the street, tearing up a ticket to her guy's last fight and basically not part of the main action of the film.

While all the peripheral characters (including the gangster, "Little Boy"), are very colorful, none of them are developed into characters with any depth. The denouement is decidedly quite disappointing. Stoker gets his hand broken by the gangsters, realizes he'll never fight again, his girlfriend is happy and presumably they'll walk into the sunset, arm in arm, facing a new, optimistic tomorrow.

Unfortunately, this is not the type of film you'll probably want to view a second time. Watch it once, but that's it!!!

DVD Review: Noir Knockout
Summary: 4 Stars

Director, Robert Wise, pulls no punches (pun intended) by filming this movie in real time. Only 72 minutes in length but keep your eye on the clocks. Great characters based on actual observations from cheap boxing circuits. Incredible lighting too. Note the back lighting on Audrey Totter's hair as she tears up ticket over the bridge onto trolley cars. Ryan is wonderful as the washed-up boxer who refuses to take a dive. Ryan was college boxing champ while attending Dartmouth so he knew what he was doing in the ring.

DVD Review: Realistic slice of the boxer's life
Summary: 4 Stars

Although this film came out between the other 2 boxing films, "Body & Soul" & "Champion", in many ways this film outshines these two classics. First off, it features the late Robert Ryan in a rare sympathetic role as Stoker, a washed up 35 yr old boxer who longs for one great match. How he achieves this despite the fact that his crooked manager, George Tobias, and the various obstacles thrown at him form the crux of this film. But also what director Robert Wise shows us in the brief 71 minute running time is the reactions of the spectators, the fear in a young boxer's face as he awaits his first match and the double dealings of the fight management. With this role and his break out performance as the bigoted soldier, Montgomery in "Crossfire", Ryan proved himself to be an "actors actor" or as Ernest Borgnine stated in his recent autobiography, a craftsman of the first order. This film also influenced Martin Scorsese and in his commentary to the DVD, to be specific, in the making of his "Raging Bull". Recommended for film noirists and boxing fans.

DVD Review: A Story About the Fight Game
Summary: 4 Stars

The film begins with a boxing match. One man is knocked down. At the "Ringside Cafe" a deal is made with the manager of a boxer; this fight will be fixed. Stoker Thompson is 35, an old man in the boxing game. Julie doesn't want Bill to continue getting beat. The film shows the reaction of the audience to the fight. The film underlines the tawdriness of this business. One boxer has been in the game too long. Julie walks around this shadowy urban neighborhood, and does not go to the fight.

Tiger Nelson seems to have the advantage over Stoker Thompson. The first two rounds are about even. The film shows the character of the customers. Stoker is knocked down in the 3rd round, but gets up at the count of nine. Stoker's manager tells him to lay down and take the count. "Little Boy" wants a fix. But the unexpected happens. The fight crowd empties the arena, Stoker's manager and trainer disappear too. Stoker dresses and leaves; he is scared. Little Boy's men take their revenge. Stoker can't fight again. Bill and Julie both won that night. [This ending is ironic.]

DVD Review: Urban Allegory
Summary: 5 Stars

More than a movie, this is an urban nightmare. A vision of some never, never land of unending shadows, cheap neons, and throngs of delirious pleasure seekers. They crowd "Dreamland" and the "Fun Arcade" or slip into the burger joint for a greasy slab, while overhead a band blares out a feverish tune. Soon the delirium spreads into the dark as far as the eye can see. And through it all, weaves the camera, in and out, as though we too are trapped in the inferno.

Except that the real pleasure-seekers crowd around a cone of shrunken light. Beneath the bulb, rounds of sweaty hopefuls beat their brains out for a few bucks and the roar of blood-lust delight. There's the fat guy stuffing his mouth with each hammer blow, the timid housewife shrieking in ecstatic release, and the office guy shadow-boxing with the boss's kisser. Even the blind man pitches to and fro to the pulse of the savage rhythms. And in the middle, there's an old guy, beaten and bloodied, trying to salvage some dignity before he checks out for the last time. Likely, he's the only one who cares. Yeah, it's a great little movie, maybe the best ever on boxing with an atmosphere so thick, the proverbial knife can cut it. With an iconic Robert Ryan, an over-scrubbed Audrey Totter, and a reptilian Alan Baxter. Pick it up.

Description of The Set-Up

Studio: Turner Hm Entertainm Release Date: 07/06/2004

This riveting, gut-punching boxing picture plays out in something close to "real time." We are locked in with an over-the-hill pug (Robert Ryan) as he arrives at an arena for a match against a younger opponent. What he doesn't know yet is that his crooked manager has agreed to throw the fight for some gangsters--so Ryan has more than one battle on his hands as each bruising round goes by. At a lean, mean 72 minutes, The Set-Up manages to load the essential film noir themes into one potent package, excitingly delivered with no breathing room. Director Robert Wise would go on to make such mega-productions as The Sound of Music, which only makes you appreciate his economy here. And the movie's a fine showcase for tall, craggy Robert Ryan, one of the great under-sung actors in American movies, who was a boxer himself before becoming an actor. --Robert Horton

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