Der Schläger von Chicago

This is a very overlooked but very good early movie by the great Tony Curtis. He plays a down and out young man whose dad is a horrible alcoholic, so he turns to boxing as a way to try to pick himself up. It is a pretty straight forward story where you'll see every turn coming but for its era it is a very decent film with some great acting by Curtis who of course went on to become a big star.

This movie's plot was all-too-familiar even in 1955. It is basically a reworking of Golden Boy with a bit of Body And Soul and two or three others mixed in. Some of the dialog is similarly recycled, but there are a few intriguing new lines providing some food for thought. Mostly though, if you are a fan of boxing movies, the two lead performances and the brisk pacing makes this one worth passing time with. Tony Curtis wouldn't have been my first choice for the lead in a boxing movie, but he brings surprising grit and ambition to the role. Borgnine is dead-on perfect as the tough-but...make that just plain tough manager who has to overcome his disappointment for the flaws in Curtis' character to take him back under his wing. John Marley is a standout as a referee vulnerable to intimidation.

Although I am not a huge fan of boxing films, I was excited to see this one simply because of the decision to cast Tony Curtis in the lead. While he was a very good actor, he seemed too pretty and delicate for such a role. Was I wrong? Could he pull this off effectively?

Eddie (Curtis) is a working guy whose life is far from perfect. His father is a drunk and Eddie keeps making excuses for his old man and is quite the enabler. When Dad (Jim Backus) is locked up for being drunk and disorderly, Eddie even goes so far as to take up boxing to pay for his father's bail!

When Eddie has his first match, he's very rough but somehow manages to win. When a respected trainer watches him in action, he (Ernest Borgnine) agrees to train him...and after a montage sequence, he's a middle weight champion. What he does AFTER this is what makes up the bulk of the movie...when he just about kills a man in the ring...and he cannot handle that.

Like nearly all boxing films, the boxers throw way too many punches and show little defense. If sights really went that way, they'd seldom go beyond the first round! But, like other boxing films it is still quite entertaining...though the fans' reaction to the big fight at the end seemed ludicrous. It's blood they want...and it's blood they got!

So is the film good? Yes, in some ways. It's a nice indictment of the brutality of the sport. But on the other, I had a hard time accepting Curtis as a hard-as-nails boxer. He just looked too pretty and too frail. With a different actor, it probably could have been better. Curtis, by the way, was a fine actor...just not in this role.

The Square Jungle finds Tony Curtis as an eager young man with limited prospects and an alcoholic father on his hands in the person of Jim Backus on his hand. A fact brutally pointed out by Clancy Cooper who is the father of Pat Crowley whom Tony is going out with. With the help of a friendly police captain Paul Kelly, Tony decides to become a boxer and Kelly even gets him former fighter Ernest Borgnine to train him.

Curtis is well cast in the part of the eager young middleweight who rises to the championship, but loses sight of some values along the way. That's Borgnine's other function besides training, but even he can't help Curtis when he starts casting eyes at curvaceous Leigh Snowden.

The film has some elements of Champion, The Crowd Roars, Kid Galahad and a few other boxing films. It's all a good mix for Tony Curtis who was in his salad days when he was making this for Universal Pictures.

In his memoirs he had nothing to say about this film, but I recall him on a television series where he spoke on the long past scandal of Paul Kelly committing a homicide in which he did some time. He said that Kelly was a first class gentleman and very helpful and gracious to a young actor on the way up. In his memoirs he did mention however David Janssen who plays a sports writer here and who was also part of Universal's stable of contract players then, that Janssen was convinced that he was the illegitimate son of Clark Gable. Looking at their ears I could see why he would think that.

The Square Jungle was definitely a boost for the career of Tony Curtis.

Tony Curtis becomes the middleweight champion and puts his opponent, John Daheim, at death's door.

This was the period when Curtis was Universal's beefcake star, so there are several shots of him stripped to the waist. George Robinson's camerawork offers a lot of close-ups during the fight sequences. The effect is to disguise what is going on, so the audience can't see exactly what is going on, yet make them look even more brutal. Curtis shows himself an effective movie actor, performing with his body, often more convincingly than with his face or his words.

With Ernest Borginine, Jim Backus, Pat Crowley, Paul Kelly, David Jannsen, and a brief appearance by Joe Louis.