Midge Kelly is determined to rise above the poverty of his early life and soon realizes that the boxing racket offers one route to do so. Deserting a young wife whom he was forced to marry by the girl’s father, he and his handicapped brother hook up with a reluctant fight trainer to aim for the top of the middleweight division.
Midge gradually works his way up through the contenders list and is signed to fight the top contender for the middleweight crown in New York. Informed that he is to lose this fight and that his chance will come later, Midge first agrees but once in the ring changes his mind and readily KO’s the top contender. He incurs the wrath of the mob that controls the fight racket, resulting in thorough beatings for himself and his brother. Refused any further fights, he eventually becomes desperate and agrees to fire his old trainer in order to sign with a local fight backer who can guarantee Kelly a shot at the middleweight title.
Midge’s self-centered push for the championship results in numerous cast-offs as his brother leaves him and two other women are discarded in favour of money and fame. There’s one other victim of Midge’s rise, however — one that demands the ultimate sacrifice in the end. —DVDverdict.com
Mark Robson (4 December 1913 – 20 June 1978) was a Canadian-born film editor, film director and producer in Hollywood.
Born in Montreal, Quebec, he moved to the United States at a young age. He studied at the University of California, Los Angeles then found work in the prop department at 20th Century Fox studios. He eventually went to work at RKO Pictures where he began training as a film editor. In 1940 he worked as an assistant to Robert Wise on the editing of Citizen Kane in addition to several other films. Both he and Wise benefited tremendously from producer and screenwriter Val Lewton, who promoted Robson from film editor to production assistant and later as director. In 1943, at the insistence of Lewton, Robson assisted Lewton and director Jacques Tourneur in a series of low-budget horror films produced by Val Lewton, including Cat People and I Walked with a Zombie. Later, Lewton was instrumental in promoting Robson to the director’s chair for films such as The Seventh… read more
