Body and Soul (1947)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Body and Soul (1947) – R. Rossen

Not just another boxing noir, but one that uses the sport as a vehicle (or metaphor even) to attack capitalism and its ill effects on individuals and society.  (It might come as no surprise that star John Garfield, writer Abraham Polonsky, and director Robert Rossen and many more from the cast and crew had trouble with blacklisting via HUAC – but Rossen named names and escaped their fate). Charley Davis (Garfield) is from a poor background and, after his father dies, the only way that he can see to bring money into the house is by boxing; in other words, the only way to get ahead is to beat up somebody else.  Of course, it is even worse because the fight game is corrupt; to secure a chance at the title he needs to make a deal with a gangster who then arranges for his opponent (a poor black fighter with a blood clot in the brain) to take a dive in the final round.  As soon as he reaches the top, Davis is surrounded by people addicted to money – and soon he is also hooked into spending big, taking cash advances against his next purse, and constantly needing more.  His idealistic artist girlfriend Peg (Lilli Palmer) eventually tells him that it is boxing or her – and he leaves her for a gold-digging floozy.   Of course, the moment finally comes when Davis himself is asked to throw a fight so that the gangsters can bet against him (the sure favourite) and make a killing.  Suddenly, Davis has some moral qualms (supported by Peg and his mother, played sternly by Anne Revere) – the final fight, shot intensely by James Wong Howe, doesn’t disappoint. I’m not sure the metaphor holds up completely (“everybody dies” seems to be another way of saying that capitalism has no mercy) but we know that the rich get richer and the gangsters are not going to sit quietly at film’s end.