Body and Soul
This was very good. The best thing about the film was the story and the way it was structured. You could tell from the opening that Charlies life was in a bad place and while it wasn't hard to guess what got him there it was still interesting to see it all unfold. I actually found Charlie always likeable simply because it's very easy to imagine someone like him going down this path in this situation, i totally bought him as a character. A guy who has never known this sort of lifestyle/financial comfort who above everything wants to take care of his mum, friend and wife ending up this naive and allowing all of this to become out of control is exactly how i'd expect this to play out. He was chewed up and spat out by life, this was the only way for him to get out of his tough predicament at the start and since he is principled shown by him being so offended at his mother going to charity for instance, it is easy to imagine this eating him up inside because once he's in there's no real way out. I thought it was funny that Shorty and Peg pushed him towards boxing and those two ended up abandoning him when things went too far, Shorty was the one who introduced him to Quinn and constantly pushed for a relationship between the two and Peg convinced him on the rooftop to box if he wanted to. Peg's isn't bad as she didn't have any idea what it would lead to but Shorty was kind of a hypocrite, surely he had to know what Quinn was all about. Great depiction, i liked him and his arc alot. I was one of the few who didn't dislike Garfield in The Sea Wolf but i definitely think he was alot better here. The film ended exactly how i would have ended it: technically a happy ending but not really as there's no way Roberts is just going to let it go, although you could see it as a happy ending either way since Charley got his soul back regardless of what happens next.
Lili Palmer's performance was fair enough but i wasn't a fan of how her character was written, she had some awful lines that made it difficult for me to accept her as a real person. To be fair though i like how she stayed principled and clearly cared about Charlie when he started spiraling out of control. I actually preferred Hazel Brooks, i don't even think she gave a better performance it's because her voice reminded me of Veronica Lake; and i really love Lake haha. The romance was so quick and not fleshed out that it wasn't very believable; i feel like i say this about every 40's film. She was reluctant to go out with him then reluctant to go to his home then she loved him on the roof for some reason after a short meal? That must have been some very strong tea his mum served, jesus. Whatever i got into it more as it went on as often happens. All of the other main characters worked for me. Lloyd Gough played his role perfectly, i read his wikipedia since i'd never heard of him and it seems that's largely because he was blacklisted for refusing to testify during the red scare not working regularly again til he was around 60 which is a shame. He was a simple character but i don't think he needed to be any more than that, a guy who acts like he's looking out for Charlie when really he's only interested in squeezing him for what he's worth. He reminded me a bit of Kirk Douglas' character in Out of the Past, that may have only been because he looked a bit similar to him though. Can't really say much about Shorty, he was solid as his friend who guenuinely cared for him, apparently he was only in four films so i'd say while he wasn't amazing he was still pretty impressive since he wasn't that experienced. Charlie's mother was good too, although i wish there was more to her; can't say whether it was the performance or the way she was written but i thought she had the potential to be one of the very best parts of the film and she never quite got there for me, still solid though. Last but not least: Ben, jesus christ i felt awful for him, the film was terrible to him and he was such a nice guy; loved his relationship with Charlie, wouldn't have minded a few more scenes with those two.
Was interested in the match-fixing part, i've actually read a fair amount about the NYC match-fixing scene during this time due to the Mafia's involvement in it. Was curious if Roberts was based on Genovese Crime Family member (and later Under/Acting Boss) Thomas 'Tommy Ryan' Eboli, for a time before he lost his license it was almost impossible to move up in the boxing world as a NYC fighter without Eboli having a say in it. Alot of future high ranking mafia members started out as boxers willing to throw fights like future Genoves boss Vincent 'The Chin' Gigante who was a Light-Heavyweight, it's really impossible to say if he was a good fighter or not since he was with the mafia from the start and it seems like he had no interest in boxing it was just a stepping stone to moving up in the mafia: he fought 25 times and lost 4 most likely all fixed and some of his wins were most likely fixed in his favour to build him up so the pay out would be bigger when he threw one, his last fight was actually in 1947 when this came out he was only 19. More than likely it's not as i doubt Eboli's fixing was publicly known at this time since he never lost his license until 1952 and that wasn't even for match-fixing it was for assaulting a ref and the other fighters manager, who knows though maybe it was an open secret: i do find it odd that this film came out during his prime match-fixing days when it was a massive money maker for the mafia. Admittedly it's alot more likely that he was just a completely made up character because it was known that this was going on. Also thinking about it, it's more likely that Eboli would be Quinn since he was the manager with the connections to the underworld, Roberts would most likely be Vito Genovese/Tony Strollo: Eboli's Capo's during this time that he reported to. Anyway i know noone cares about this other than me so i'll shut up haha.
Like this alot, thanks for nominating Cricket. So just Ride The Pink Horse and Gentleman Jim if Blix is still in.
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