Breakdown (1952)

Director:

Edmond Angelo

Writers:

Robert Abel (play)
Robert Abel (screenplay)

Release Date:

16 July 1952 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir

Tagline:

HE WAS A KNOCK-OUT WITH THE WOMEN...BUT WOMEN and BOXING DON'T MIX! (original print ad - almost all caps)

Plot Keywords:

Judge | Prison Warden | Newsboy | Based On Play

Cast

Ann Richards	...	June Hannum
William Bishop	...	Terry Williams
Anne Gwynne	...	Candy Allen
Sheldon Leonard	...	Nick Sampson
Wally Cassell	...	Pete Sampson
Richard Benedict	...	Harry 'Punchy' Adams
Joe McTurk	...	'Longshot' Maginnis
John Vosper	...	Judge Sam Hannum
Roy Engel	...	Al Bell
Norman Rainey	...	Doc
Hal Baylor	...	Joe Thompson (champ)
Elena Sirangelo	...	Mrs. Prescott
Gene Covelli	...	Gumbo, the newsboy
Michelle King	...	Girl in Audience
Al Cantor	...	Joe DeVito

Runtime:

76 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Pegasus Productions

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Heavy Traffic (1973)

rare little B-noir is worth tracking down

Low-budget melodrama with very fine performances, adapted by author Robert Abel from his own stage play, THE SAMSON SLASHER. Though it suffers a few minor lapses in character logic (i.e. one character reveals something rather devastating about his lover, but the next scene finds his lover behaving as if nothing had happened), the writing is uniformly sharp in the story of an amateur boxer sprung from prison who falls in love with the niece of the hanging judge who sentenced him.

Sheldon Leonard and Wally Cassel are quite strong in critical supporting roles, though lead actor William Bishop is a slightly flat cross between Frank Lovejoy and Rock Hudson. He pulls it off adequately, but it's the brother characters played by Leonard and Cassel who buoy the narrative, with the latter as a quite obviously gay, and spurned, boxing trainer.

A fascinating aspect of this film is its absolutely relentless final boxing match, where Bishop takes a pummeling not unlike the depiction of the LaMotta/Leonard fight in RAGING BULL where DeNiro's LaMotta refuses to go down. One has to wonder if Scorsese caught this rarity on late-night television and it stuck.

It's difficult to find information on this film but it appears to be in the public domain, so perhaps it will turn up as a bargain basement DVD. Particularly interesting to note that this is the sole film of stage director Edmund Angelo (who also produced, and cast his wife, Ann Richards).