The Square Jungle

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.

Borgnine reading books, working in what appears to be a municipal library, and quoting from the Talmud are the most unusual aspects about THE SQUARE JUNGLE. The fact that he is a former San Quentin inmate restores normality to his character. Also in 1955, he won the Oscar for MARTY, and those were the two flicks in which he played his most memorably decent characters of his acting career - and he did superbly in both, as it is much easier to act villain than good.

Pretty boy Curtis does his part competently enough, especially when he argues with his Dad, capably played by Jim Backus, Borgnine, and with copper Paul Kelly. He kisses lovely Crowley and seems to genuinely care for her, but one never really gets to know what bombshell Snowden amounted to in his heart, or even what her real aims were in seeking his company.

What is emphatically clear is that Curtis' boxing technique would never allow him to survive the first minute in a real ring.

Director Jerry Hopper, better known for his TV work than films, does a reasonable job, but he is not helped by the script. The fact that Curtis graduates from a fight at the local training center to earn $25 to pay his father's release from incarceration, to competing for middleweight champion of the world in about the same breath, forced me to suspend all my disbelief. Editing was nothing to write home about, either.

What made me watch the rest was that Daheim was a truly likeable opponent, married and with four children, and you just know something awful will be happening to him. You watch three fights between the two men where two would have sufficed and then some.

The boxing sequences suffer from the fact that I could not believe Curtis would make it as a street fighter, let alone a boxing world champion, but after a while I just tried to accept it and watched the rest amiably enough.

Good to see Joe Louis in the ring, albeit as a guest.

Time waser with nothing too memorable or that you ain't seen before.

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.

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.