Day of the Fight (1951)

Based on Kubrick's pictorial for Look Magazine (January 18, 1949) entitled "Prizefighter," "Day Of The Fight" tells of a day in the life of a middleweight Irish boxer named Walter Cartier, ... See full summary »

Director:

Stanley Kubrick

Writer:

Robert Rein (narration script)

Stars:

Douglas Edwards, Vincent Cartier, Walter Cartier

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Douglas Edwards	...	Narrator (voice)

Storyline

Based on Kubrick's pictorial for Look Magazine (January 18, 1949) entitled "Prizefighter," "Day Of The Fight" tells of a day in the life of a middleweight Irish boxer named Walter Cartier, particularly the day of his bout with black middleweight Bobby James. This 16-minute short opens with a short (about 4 minutes) study of boxing's history, narrated by veteran newscaster Douglas Edwards in a no-nonsense, noir tone of voice. After this, we follow Walter (and his twin brother Vincent) through his day as he prepares for his 10:00 P.M. bout. After eating breakfast, going to early mass and eating lunch, he starts arranging his things for the fight at 4:00 P.M. By 8:00, he is waiting in his dressing room, where he undergoes a mental transformation, turning into the fighting machine the crowd clamors for. At 10:00, he faces James, and soon, he comes out victorious in a short match which was filmed live on April 17th, 1950.

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Plot Keywords:

look magazine | boxer | boxing | brother | identical twins | 

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Genres:

Documentary | Short | Sport

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 April 1951 (USA)

Also Known As:

This Is America: Day of the Fight

Filming Locations:

West 12th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$3,900 (estimated)

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

16 min 13 min (TCM print)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

It cost Stanley Kubrick $3,900 to make and he sold it (to RKO) for $4,000.

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Quotes

Narrator: Walter isn't concerned with the hands of the clock now, just his own hands. As he gets ready to walk out there in the arena in front of the people, Walter is slowly becoming another man. This is the man who cannot lose, who must not lose. The hard movements of his arms and fists are different from what they were an hour ago. They belong to a fierce new person. They're part of the arena man, the fighting machine that the crowd outside has paid to see in fifteen minutes.

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Connections

Featured in Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (2001)

User Reviews

Pretty good.

Had Stanley Kubrick never gone on to become a famous director, three of his early films would never have been packaged together for sale on a DVD. That's because these films are cheap shorts made by an eager and unknown director--hardly works of art. They show none of the director's expert touches--they are just standard short films you might have seen in the early 1950s.

Of the three films in this package, the only one really worth seeing for most people is DAY OF THE FIGHT. While it's not a great film (made with a cheap hand-held camera) and seems rather "square", it does remind you of his first feature, KILLER'S KISS and it surely provided an excellent training ground for his craft. In other words, if Kubrick hadn't done a "throwaway" film like DAY OF THE FIGHT, he wouldn't have been able to make such a great low-budget film like KILLER'S KISS.

Overall, a film most could skip but perhaps worth seeing for fans of this director or students who are in film school.