Movie Review: Robert Ryan in "The Set-Up" (1949)

Robert Ryan in "The Set-Up," 1949.

Robert Ryan and Audrey Totter.

“The Set-Up,” is a taut film noir thriller from 1949. Running just 72 minutes, the story takes places in real time, one of the earliest movies to use this narrative technique. “The Set-Up” was expertly directed by Robert Wise, who started doing odd jobs in movies and eventually became an editor.  He edited the first two films directed by a young theater director, Orson Welles. Those two movies were “Citizen Kane” and “The Magnificent Ambersons.” By the mid 1940’s Wise had become a director, and he had an extremely successful directing career, helming a number of notable movies in disparate genres, from science fiction, “The Day the Earth Stood Still” and “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” to blockbuster musicals like “West Side Story” and “The Sound of Music.” (That was back when there was such a thing as a blockbuster musical.) Wise won 2 Best Director Oscars for his work on “West Side Story” and “The Sound of Music,” and won the Academy’s lifetime achievement award at the ripe old age of 52. 

“The Set-Up” tells the story of an over the hill 35-year-old boxer Bill “Stoker” Thompson, who is supposed to take a dive in a fight against a much younger opponent. The fix has been arranged by a gangster, and Stoker’s manager is in on it. The only problem is that he neglects to tell Stoker about it before the fight. 

The always underrated Robert Ryan played Stoker, and he did an excellent job. Ryan was 6’4” of lean muscle, and he had the right physicality to be very believable in the role. Ryan was a heavyweight boxing champ in college at Dartmouth, so he knew what he was doing inside the ring. Before he became an actor Ryan worked on a ship for two years. He also worked on a ranch in Montana, and he was a Marine drill instructor during World War II. So, yeah, he had the right tough guy credentials to play the part. Ryan had an interesting film career, giving excellent performances in many well-known movies, yet major stardom seemed to elude him. 

Audrey Totter plays Stoker’s wife Julie, and she delivers a compelling performance. It’s easy for the audience to sympathize with her desire to have Stoker quit boxing. She recites the names of drab towns that they have just been in before this fight in Paradise City, and it’s clear that Stoker’s best days are long behind him. Totter has an interesting face, with extremely high and prominent cheekbones and a pointed nose.

“The Set-Up” expertly takes us into the world of prizefighting, as every boxer in the movie, Stoker included, thinks he's just a few punches away from a shot at the title. Even Gunboat, the sad old stumblebum fighter, keeps reciting the name of a fighter who lost 21 fights in a row before he became a champion. You can see in Ryan's eyes that even though he thinks the other fighters are deluded for thinking the way they do, he knows that he’s just the same. 

Wise depicts the boxing fans as a bloodthirsty mob, the descendants of those people who happily cheered on the gladiator fights during the Roman Empire. Seemingly meek women turn into heartless harridans screaming "kill him!" Wise keeps showing a fat guy in the audience who just keeps eating. Every time we see him, he’s devouring a new food item. That's what the fight is all about, selling popcorn. It's bloody entertainment, even though these men are fighting for their lives.

“The Set-Up” is an excellently made film noir, and I would recommend it highly for any fans of the genre. Robert Ryan’s performance is superb, and fans of his will enjoy “The Set-Up.”

Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster in "Run Silent, Run Deep" (1958)

Burt Lancaster was the producer and star of the 1958 World War II submarine thriller, Run Silent, Run Deep. He co-starred with Clark Gable, in what turned out to be one of Gable’s last movies. (Gable died of a heart attack in November, 1960.) Run Silent, Run Deep is a very good submarine movie, with a lot of suspense, and a battle between commander Gable and officer Lancaster. (I think every submarine movie features tension between the captain and the crew.) Submarines are a great subject for movies because they’re really creepy and terrifying for anyone who likes the open air. The enclosed setting and the constant sense of danger is a great recipe for drama. Lancaster gives a good performance, similar to his character in From Here to Eternity, the tough but fair military officer. Gable is also very good as the driven Commander Richardson.

As the film opens, Commander Richardson has his submarine sunk by the Japanese in the Bungo Straits, off the coast of Japan. He is then relegated to desk duty, even though he longs for another chance to command a sub and sink the Japanese ship that torpedoed him. Every day he “sinks” the Japanese boat on his desk, as his adjutant officer, played by a ridiculously young-looking Jack Warden, recreates the circumstances under which Richardson lost his sub. Lancaster plays Lieutenant Bledsoe, who is looking forward to command a sub of his own. Bledsoe is expecting to get command of his own submarine, but he gets the news that he will be serving under Richardson. Bledsoe quickly figures out that Richardson used Bledsoe’s good record to argue that he should be given command of a sub again, with Bledsoe on board as a “back-up.” Bledsoe resents this, and tells Richardson this before the sub leaves port. The crew of the submarine, featuring a very young Don Rickles, has worked with Bledsoe before, and they begin to resent Richardson’s constant drilling. It turns out that Richardson is planning a very risky maneuver to sink Japanese boats, which has everyone nervous. Richardson is also taking the submarine to the Bungo Straits, which is not part of their mission. During an attack on the sub, Richardson falls and sustains a skull fracture, and Bledsoe takes command of the sub.

Gable is very good in a role that isn’t very sympathetic. His Captain Richardson is reminiscent of Captain Ahab, given his monomaniacal obsession with the Japanese boat that sank his sub. Richardson is willing to put his crews’ lives in danger just so he can settle a score. Lancaster is excellent as Bledsoe, and he exudes confidence and competence when he takes over the sub. There was tension between Gable and Lancaster off the screen, as well. No doubt some of this was due to their different career trajectories. Gable, known as the “King of Hollywood,” hadn’t had a hit movie in a long time, and had left MGM, his longtime studio, in 1953. Gable was also aging, and had put on weight. In contrast, Lancaster was at or near the peak of his popularity and good looks. And even though Gable had top billing, Lancaster’s company was producing the movie, meaning Burt was calling the shots. When the time came to shoot the scenes where Lancaster would take over command of the submarine, Gable said, “I’m not going to do it. He’s not going to take over the boat.” Because the rest of the movie depended upon this plot twist, there was no way that Gable could keep commanding the sub for the rest of the movie. Gable walked off the movie, and shooting was suspended for two days. Scriptwriter John Gay and producer Jim Hill finally worked out a solution where Gable’s character would be injured, and thus could no longer command the sub. Satisfied, Gable went back to work. (Quote and story from Against Type: The Biography of Burt Lancaster, by Gary Fishgall. Pg. 166-7.) One can only wonder what Lancaster thought about Gable’s behavior! Gable must have seen Lancaster’s taking over the submarine as a threat to Gable’s own masculine screen persona. Lancaster could also be difficult to deal with at times, and I wonder how he was able to control his temper after Gable’s outburst.

Lancaster, and director Robert Wise, strove for authenticity with all of the submarine sequences. All of the underwater shots of the sub were shot in a water tank with models, which was as realistic as special effects could get in 1957. Don Rickles said of Lancaster’s drive for realism, “He always wanted to know what the depth was and what this gear meant…He’d say ‘Don, do you know what you’re looking at?’ I had no idea what I was looking at, but to humor him, I’d always say, ‘Yes, I do, I do.’” (Fishgall, pg. 169) Typically for one of Lancaster’s movies, there were also clashes with director Robert Wise, and when Lancaster and Hill edited the picture themselves, Wise quit. (Burt Lancaster: An American Life, by Kate Buford, pg. 185.) He was certainly not the only director to be infuriated with how a Hecht-Hill-Lancaster production was run.

After the commercial failure of the amazing Sweet Smell of Success, starring Burt and Tony Curtis, Hecht-Hill-Lancaster needed a hit. They figured Run Silent, Run Deep would be a big commercial success. It was not. Although the movie was not a flop, it was not the smash that Lancaster needed at the time. Run Silent, Run Deep is still a good war movie, and I would definitely recommend it.