What a wonderful way to end one of the all-time great careers. Bogart's last film, "The Harder They Fall" is a tough, uncompromising, cynical look at the fight world, and Bogart is magnificent as a down and out reporter who sells out to crooked boxing promoters.

One of the things so excellent about the film is that Bogie is surrounded by fantastic performances, particularly that of Rod Steiger as a vicious, greedy promoter, Mike Lane as the big dumb lug Steiger uses to accomplish his goals, and Max Baer as an egomaniacal champion.

"The Harder They Fall" spares us nothing - not the violence in the ring, the treatment of individuals like merchandise, the preying on the downtrodden. And it doesn't spare us Bogart's haggard looks, either. However, his energy is great and his characterization of a writer turned press rep, a man who looks the other way, is a powerful one.

There's a story often told about Bogart in his last days. Friends would come over to visit in the afternoon, and Bogart would climb into a dumbwaiter in order to get down to the first floor. He was that small (80 pounds) and that weak. But there was never anything weak about the mind, the will, or the persona.

This was a terrific film to end the long and extraordinary career of Humphrey Bogart, though it isn't exactly one of his more famous films. Like REQUIUM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT, CHAMPION and THE SET-UP, this film is an exposé about the sleaziness and inherent evil of the boxing business. Sadly, since these films appeared decades ago, boxing continues to be a savage business filled with some apparent thugs and poor saps continued getting their brains scrambled--and in many cases not having enough to live on once their career was shot.

Bogart plays an ex-sports columnist who's out of work. Rod Steiger is a mobster who wants to hire Bogey to promote a newly discovered boxer from Argentina, "el Toro". Unfortunately, when they see him spar, it's obvious that he can't punch, can't take a hit and is awkward. His only asset is that he's huge--about 6'7" and almost 300 pounds. But, being a cynical sort of film, el Toro's incompetence isn't a hindrance--they will just arrange a huge publicity campaign and place him in a long string of setup fights--where his opponents will take dives. Sadly, el Toro is very naive and truly believes he's winning these fights.

Bogey plays a nice role as a guy torn between his love of money and his nagging conscience. None of the mobsters have this dilemma--they could care less about the big lug. In fact, when one of the setup fights results in a man's death, no one but el Toro and Bogey seem the least bit concerned. Later, when el Toro is badly beaten and gets his reality check, the film does a great job of piling on the makeup and making the actor looked as if he went through a meat grinder.

The acting is exceptional throughout and the writing was rather uncompromising. Several standouts", other than Bogart, are Steiger and Nehemiah Persoff as thugs as well as Bogey's on-screen wife, Jan Sterling--in a good and understated performance. Also Mike Lane plays el Toro very well and is quite convincing. The only negative is that in so many ways this isn't the most novel of films--being so much like REQUIUM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT and the other films.

Interestingly enough, Italian boxer Primo Carnera saw this film as a thinly veiled biography of his career. While he ultimately lost his lawsuit against the production company, the parallels are too obvious to be accidental. He was almost the exact size as el Toro, there were allegations that many of his fights were fixed and like el Toro, it seems like he had no idea his entire career was a sham.

An interesting thing to watch for is the height of all the actors. While el Toro IS a big guy, they deliberately chose chose lots of short actors to heighten the effect. You'll realize this is true when you see that Bogart (at 5'8") is one of the taller actors!

The Harder They Fall is adapted from a novel of the same name by Budd Schulberg and it is a re-telling of the Primo Carnera story. The real Primo however was never left in the dire straits that Toro Moreno was in the film. Nevertheless his reputation as a fighter remains under a cloud.

The 6 foot 8 inch Mike Lane is brought from Argentina by boxing manager Rod Steiger and a syndicate with very much implied underworld backing is formed around him. To publicize Lane, Steiger hires down on his luck newspaperman Humphrey Bogart. Bogart becomes the only man in the group around him that Lane trusts.

Of course a lot of set up fights are arranged for Lane until he's matched with the heavyweight champion. Then the poor slob is on his own.

The callousness of the group around Lane is nauseating to behold. Everyone has a piece of this guy and they're all getting rich off him. Only Bogart seems to have conscience about it.

Although Carnera himself wasn't as badly left off in real life as our protagonist here is, this is a story that is still being told about pugilists who get used and abused by the folks who run boxing.

The Harder They Fall has the look and feel of the gyms and the arenas where the boxers ply their trade. The film is helped a great deal by the performances of two former heavyweight champions, Max Baer and Jersey Joe Walcott.

And irony of ironies Baer is the guy who took the championship from Carnera in real life. His portrayal is also closer to the picture of him we have from Cinderella Man than the real Max Baer. But it's a great acting job. Baer who liked the nightlife and the show business scene, in some sense gives a better performance than either Bogart or Steiger, he really lived this film.

But Steiger and Bogart are both good. Steiger is at the top of his game and this was a great role for Bogart to go out on.