Customer Reviews

Harder They Fall

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Budd Schulberg's 1947 classic isn't nearly as dated as you might think. The Harder They Fall is a fictitious expose of the seamier underbelly of the boxing rackets as they existed in the 40's. It provided the framework for an excellent 1956 movie of the same name which was Bogart's final flick.

Through the eyes of Eddie Lewis, an Ivy League educated sometimes sportswriter who is on the payroll of mobster Nick Latka, we see the deceipt and unscrupulousness of the boxing business. Latka has elevated himself from a small time juvenile delinquent to one of the heads of the boxing racket. He pulls the strings of corruption from his palatial estate. For a weekly stipend, Lewis is the press agent for Latka's boxing patsies.

Latka's latest crony is one Toro Molina, a gargantuan peasant boy and wine barrel maker from Argentina. Brought to the U.S. by the owner of a circus in which he performed as a strong man, Molina's contract is bought by Latka. Unfortunately Molina is slow, lumbering, unschooled in self defense, and has powder puff punching power.

Regardless, Latka plans to glorify Molina and through a series of fixed fights designed to elevate him to championship contending status. What follows is the inevitable rise to the penthouse followed by the fall to the cellar and the endless depravity to make a dishonest dollar.

WMSR is enjoying a nice revival at the moment, and it's time for this superior work to come into the sun as well.
What's most arresting about Schulberg is his ability to infuse formulaic subject matter with pathos and humanity. He wears his politics on his sleave, but his characters don't suffer much because of it. In an era when partisan opinion is treated as graceless error, it's exciting to read someone who gives a damn about the sorry state of the world.
Schulberg handles American vernacular speach well, but falters with his Argentine characters. Still, a rapid, crisp and entertaining book

I was a big fan of What Makes Sammy Run and I thought this novel was on par. The action moves quickly, but unpredictably. I didn't know or care much about boxing, but this book showed both the sadness and the beauty of the sport.

Budd Schulberg, by the way, wrote the story and screenplay of the great Brando picture "On the Waterfront" (1954). His boxing novel is nearly sixty years old now, but it's lost nothing of its interest as a picture of the corruption that can flourish under the surface of mass entertainment. Prizefighting has been cleaned up considerably so that stories like this one can no longer happen (they say), but the greed and cynical manipulation that Schulberg dramatizes is a permanent fixture of American society (consider the "pillar-of-the-community" crooks at Enron). One of the scariest elements of the tale is just how far its hero has fallen. If there's ever been a cultural classic of American sports fiction, this is it.

There's a lot to dislike about Budd Schulberg the man, but you've got to separate the art from the artist.

The Harder They Fall is a superb novel, not simply about boxing but about creating a powerful hoax. The story holds up today and its story can be applied to pop-stars and politicians. Schulberg walks us through the seedy backrooms of the fight game, we meet all the different characters who benefit from a corrupt system -- and we learn how each of them justify their role in it.

If you liked FAT CITY or REQUIEM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT, you'll love THE HARDER THEY FALL.

This book provides an inside look at the fight- game. It tells the story of the building- up of a phony contender a massive Argentinian Torro Moreno. It also gives insight into the corruption , of a racket- dominated fight world.

Schulberg is a hard- hitting writer with a clear political agenda , but the tale rings true.

WMSR is enjoying a nice revival at the moment, and it's time for this superior work to come into the sun as well.
What's most arresting about Schulberg is his ability to infuse formulaic subject matter with pathos and humanity. He wears his politics on his sleave, but his characters don't suffer much because of it. In an era when partisan opinion is treated as graceless error, it's exciting to read someone who gives a damn about the sorry state of the world.
Schulberg handles American vernacular speach well, but falters with his Argentine characters. Still, a rapid, crisp and entertaining book

If you are interested in boxing and like your tales full of insight into the darker nature of man, then go for this book. The characters are not complex, they might even be called cartoonish, but its a classic tale of how a man, a PR flack, loses his moral compass. Its written in the same style of a Hammett novel but the author's not quite as a much a master of the style. Nonetheless, a good period piece and boxing novel.

A group of men, with the help of a Press agent and a trainer, manipulate a poor, huge, talentless fighter rescued from numbing poverty towards the world heavyweight boxing title. The agent and the trainer are the only two men with any real conscience to speak of. The characters, and insight into the world of boxing immediately after world war II, is fascinating. Schulberg's dialog crackles with realism and excitement. Schulberg is one of the best boxing writers and this book is one of his best.

The novel is an interesting tale of the classic American boxing age, but Schulberg's attempt to bring it current with slams on Don King is a stretch. Read it for what it is: the story of a bygone age, not an-up-to date review of the ring.