Your favorite boxing movies

Anyone like Gladiator?, it might not be a top 3 but i did like it a lot when I was a young fella. Haven't seen it in years now.

 

For those who haven't seen them, you might enjoy these old boxing / sci fi classics:


One Step Beyond: "The Last Round." - Starring Charles Bronson.


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The Twilight Zone: "Steel." - Starring Lee Marvin.


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The Twilight Zone. "The Big Tall Wish."


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I love the old black and white stuff. For me shows like the Twilight Zone are some of the best TV ever filmed. These boxing related gems are just great.

 

How can you have a film with Rocky in it and not have him box? I know Stallone is pushing 70(?) but the last Rocky film that had him training someone else and not get in the ring himself (Rocky V) bombed and is probably the least popular of all the Rocky films.

 

you answered your own question there.

 

If you're looking for one of the best stories ever with a boxing theme on the small screen, look no further than 'Night Gallery' in an episode titled "The Ring with the red velvet ropes". Chuck Connors and Gary Lockwood going at it for the heavyweight championship of all-time. An eerie piece and one that will keep you captivated.

 

seeing as some tv series shows are mentioned....can i add...


'Dinner at the Sporting Club'
Original Air Date - Nov 7, 1978
Part of the 'Play for Today' BBC TV Series.

Dinny Mathews is a small time boxing manager facing a dilemma. He sees the need for financial sponsorship but as "a way in" he must agree to provide a boxer for a a fight at London's Sporting Club. His problem is that the only fighter he has that fits the bill, John Duncan, is neither good enough nor fit enough to take the fight on. As the build up to the fight begins, Mathews is introduced to the seedy world of corporate sponsorship, a world completely alien to all that he believes in and one where there appears little room for the honour and self respect of the sport that he loves. Ultimately he must choose between his own principles or those of people he clearly despises.

(Bertram Mills)


*this also features terry downes as a trainer to a boxer played by liam neeson.

and its actually a very good watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nLYOcws3hA

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I have already had the allocated 3 films listed, but would like to mention another 2 that have not been mentioned ; Gentleman Jim with Errol Flynn 1942, which has great recreations of the early days of fights on barges and makeshift rings. Same period, but seldom , if ever seen these days is The Great John L, aka A Man Called Sullivan 1945. Corbett was played by Rory Calhoun, not the middleweight in that one. Again a very colourful rendition of a bygone period

 

"Undisputed" wasn't so bad

 

John Garfield along with Cagney were great in these type of films. The one with JG on the lam was They Made Me a Criminal 1939. It was a remake of 1933's The Life of Jimmy Dolan. Yes, Body and Soul was outstanding, the same director, Robert Rossen, later made The Hustler in 1961.

 

Yes Robert Wise made two of the best, along with director Mark Robson who also made two great boxing pictures ; Champion in 1949 and The Harder They Fall in '57. Interesting that these four films along with another classic, Body and Soul, were all filmed in black and white.

 

Will check this out thanks for posting.

There is a Benny Lynch Movie from the 70s anyone seen it ?

 

There was talk of a Lynch biopic being made around 20 years ago with Robert Carlyle in the lead, but it never came to pass.

 

Ye i seen a doc with carlyle talking about it,a damn shame

 

RAGING BULL:deal..

Rocky 1 was ok, but let's be real a guy who's only 5-7, and who can't box worth beans has no business as a World heavyweight champion, Deniro is a waaaaaaaaaaaay better actor than Stallone..

 

As a follow up to my Corbett film post, here is a follow up of 2 more where he has been used as part of the film. A 1953 western, City of Bad Men used the Corbett - Fitz' fight as a plot device for a box-office heist. Rather than the actual noon start, they had the first bell in the evening, but it was not a documentary. Interesting to see Jimmy Lennon as the announcer, introducing the Welshman Bob Fitzsimmons at 172 lbs and G J J at 180 lbs! They were played by stunt men. Fitz' by Gil Perkins a former Australian champion athlete who was co founder of the Stunts man Association whose last film appearance was in Raging Bull as a corner man. John Daheim played Corbett, he also was in Champion as Johnny Dunne, Douglas' last opponent.
Corbett crops up again in an underrated film Tom Horn 1980. He bullies Horn, Steve McQueen, at the start of the film in a Wyoming saloon in 1901. Again anachronistic, in that G J J is on his march to the title sporting a moustache and Irish brogue.
I'd like to see one based on 1896 when Fitz's 2 fights with Maher and Sharkey involved western legends Judge Roy Bean and Wyatt Earp. hopefully with some degree of accuracy.