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      • Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blache
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      • Incindies (2010)
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      • The Cheat
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      • L'Atalante (1934)
      • Let Us Be Gay
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      • True Confession ('37)
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      • My Gal Sal (1942)
      • Nightmare Alley
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      • The Set-Up ('49)
      • They Won't Believe Me (1947)
      • The Third Man
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The Set-Up ('49)

Nutshell Review:  The Set-Up (1949)
Director:  Robert Wise
Starring:  Robert Ryan, Audrey Totter, George Tobias, Alan Baxter, Wallace Ford, Percy Helton
Studio:  RKO
​
My IMDB Rating:  9
Viewing:   Warner Archive DVD
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Plot: 
​Stoker Thompson (Ryan) is a middling heavyweight boxer on the down side of his career, looking for one more payday in a fight with a young up & comer.  Unfortunately, unbeknownst to him, his manager Tiny (Tobias) has agreed to throw the fight to pad the pockets of mobster Little Boy (Baxter).  Taking place in real time (a taut 72 minutes), Thompson prepares for the fight, against the better wishes of his wife Julie (Totter) who decides not to attend, fearing the worst & telling Stoker “you’re always just one punch away” in reply to his dreams of a title fight.  When Stoker finds out the fix is in he goes all out to defeat the younger fighter, but must answer to Little Boy when he knocks the kid out.
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Thoughts: 

​The Set-Up boils Noir down to its essence, in that the ideas of fatalism, self-determination & corruption arc throughout Art Cohn’s script, Milton Krasner’s camera work & Robert Wise’s direction.  The opening scene, in fact, is a microcosm of all three as the camera swivels & moves, following different people as they paint the picture of the world of Paradise City and the boxing sub-culture, including the aggressive young paperboy taking business from the addled former boxing trying to sell score sheets, the aggressive fans looking for blood to be spilled & Thompson’s own crooked manager confirming the fix, taking the cash, then shorting his partner on the take.  It’s a carnivorous world of dog eat dog, with the good, slow or innocent swallowed up whole. 
Stoker just wants to fight and Julie just wants him to quit.  When she tells him she won’t watch him get “his head bashed in” anymore Stoker still holds out hope she will change her mind, continually looking out from the locker room window towards her hotel room window, then to the seat he has reserved for her.  Wise does nicely to frame the hotel through a triangular opening in the window diagonally splitting Stokers life between boxing & his wife.  He also frames Julie’s empty seat between the ropes, as if reinforcing the division in Stoker’s life.  Krasner/Wide further uses the ring to separate what is moral and what is immoral by darkening the arena around it to make it appear to be floating in darkness protecting Stoker from the double cross of his manager & the venality of Little Boy and the other crass patrons who cheer for Stoker’s demise. Stoker’s desire for victory within the ring, is pure, although entirely misguided.  It’s all he knows and it keeps him innocent, if not completely ignorant of the corruption around him. Even when he discovers the double cross he fights not just for principle, but for some kind of salvation, albeit violently at the hands of Little Boy and his henchmen.
Art Cohn’s script is spun tight, with little, if any, wasted words or action.  He wonderfully paints the arc of the boxer’s life in the expectations of each boxer before & after they have their fight.  The young fighters full of expectations, the rising stars confident, and the old punchers completely delusional; all watched carefully by Stoker, secure in his understanding of the arc, but mistaken in his ultimate place within the arc.  Cohn’s script foreshadows Stoker’s fall, but is careful not to telegraph it, resting in the oppressive nature of the corruption to push the story to its conclusion.  Only in the redemptive positioning of Julie, framed at the beginning of the movie in the hotel room and at the end on the sidewalk, lifts The Set-Up from its emersion in Noir cynicism. As noted the run time of the movie, 72 minutes happens in real time, a testament to the sharpness of the production.
Ryan’s performance, however, is the sun that the movie revolves around and his portrayal of Stoker as a noble beast is the best of his stellar career.  Ryan was always a subtle and reserved actor, often paring down his performances to as minimalistic as possible, quite often, as here, performed with a quiet dignity.  My favorite scenes are in the locker room as the different boxers shuffle through, sharing their expectations and concerns on the way to the ring & their disappointments or triumphs upon their return.  Ryan calmly & quietly observes the fighters, offering small encouragements, but it’s his eyes that tell the stories that are reeling in his head.  They glimmer as he recalls a satisfying memory and burn darkly when he sees a dark future.  Ryan is such a subtle actor that reaction shots are all that are needed to expand the story and fill in missing and unnecessary dialogue.  His resignation of his fate after winning the fight is also a master class in subtlety.  As he first tries to escape through the arena he appears like a caged animal thrashing about, but once he’s in the alley defending himself he’s a cornered animal with just his eyes reflecting his self-defense plan.
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​Category:  Film Noir
See Also:  Crossfire (’47), Champion (’49), The Racket (’51), Raging Bull (’80)

Random Notes & Quotes: 

*Robert Ryan was a championship boxer as an undergrad at Dartmouth.

*Robert Wise also directed The Sound of Music (’65), West Side Story (’61) & Star Trek:  The Movie (’79) in a career that spanned 50+ years, beginning as an editor in 1939.  While often overlooked on lists of the greatest American directors, he won 2 Academy Awards for best Director (Sound of Music & West Side Story).

*Wise also edited Citizen Kane (’42), receiving an Academy Award nomination (losing to William Holmes for Sergeant York ‘42).
​
*Martin Scorsese often credits the boxing sequences of The Set-Up as having a primary influence on how he shot Raging Bull (’80).
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  • Home
  • Top 10 Lists
    • My Top 10 Favorite Movies
    • Top 10 Heist Movies
    • Top 10 Neo-Noir Films
    • The Top 10 Films of the Troubles (1969-1998) >
      • The Troubles Selected Timeline
    • Top 10 Films from 2001
    • Director Top 10's >
      • Top 10 Film Noir Directors
      • Top 10 Coen Brothers Films
      • Top 10 John Ford Films
      • Top 10 Samuel Fuller Films
      • Top 10 Alfred Hitchcock Films
      • Top 10 John Huston Films
      • Top 10 Fritz Lang Films (American)
      • Val Lewton Top 10
      • Top 10 Ernst Lubitsch Films
      • Top 10 Jean-Pierre Melville Films
      • Top 10 Nicholas Ray Films
      • Top 10 Preston Sturges Films
      • Top 10 Robert Siodmak Films
      • Top 10 William Wellman Films
      • Top 10 Billy Wilder Films
    • Actor/Actress Top 10's >
      • Top 10 Joan Blondell Movies
      • Top 10 Clark Gable Movies
      • Top 10 Ava Gardner Films
      • Top 10 Gloria Grahame Films
      • Top 10 Jean Harlow Movies
      • Top 10 Miriam Hopkins Films
      • Top 10 Grace Kelly Films
      • Top 10 Burt Lancaster Films
      • Top 10 Carole Lombard Movies
      • Top 10 Myrna Loy Films
      • Top 10 Marilyn Monroe Films
      • Top 10 Robert Mitchum Noir Movies
      • Top 10 Paul Newman Films
      • Top 10 Robert Ryan Movies
      • Top 10 Norma Shearer Movies
      • Top 10 Barbara Stanwyck Films
    • Top 10 Noir Films (Classic Era)
    • Top 10 Pre-Code Films
    • Top 10 Actresses of the 1930's
  • Reviews
    • Quick Hits: Short Takes on Recent Viewing >
      • Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blache
      • Elevator to the Gallows ('58)
      • Days of Heaven
      • Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
      • Incindies (2010)
      • In the Mood For Love (2000)
      • Last Picture Show Teaser Intro
      • Le Silence De La Mer ('49)
      • The Princess Bride ('87) Intro
      • Pulp Fiction ('94) Intro
    • The 1910's >
      • The Lubitsch German Silents
    • The 1920's >
      • The Odessa Steps Sequence as Continuing Film History
      • Sunrise (1927)
      • Wild Orchids ('29)
    • The 1930's >
      • Becky Sharp (1935)
      • Blonde Crazy
      • Bombshell ('33)
      • The Cheat
      • The Conquerors
      • The Crowd Roars
      • The Divorcee
      • Frank Capra & Barbara Stanwyck: The Evolution of a Romance
      • Heroes for Sale
      • The Invisible Man (1933)
      • L'Atalante (1934)
      • Let Us Be Gay
      • My Man Godfrey
      • No Man of Her Own (1932)
      • Platinum Blonde ('31)
      • Reckless ('35)
      • The Sign of the Cross (1932)
      • The Sin of Nora Moran (1932)
      • True Confession ('37)
      • Virtue ('32)
      • The Women
    • The 1940's >
      • Casablanca (1942)
      • The Story of Citizen Kane
      • Criss Cross (1949)
      • Double indemnity
      • Jean Arthur in A Foreign Affair
      • The Killers 1946 & 1964 Comparison
      • The Maltese Falcon Intro
      • Moonrise (1948)
      • My Gal Sal (1942)
      • Nightmare Alley
      • Notorious Intro ('46)
      • Overlooked Christmas Movies of the 1940's
      • Pursued (1947)
      • Remember the Night ('40)
      • The Red Shoes (1948)
      • The Set-Up ('49)
      • They Won't Believe Me (1947)
      • The Third Man
    • The 1950's >
      • The Asphalt Jungle Secret Cinema Intro
      • Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ('58) Intro
      • The Crimson Kimono (1959)
      • A Face in the Crowd (1957)
      • In a Lonely Place
      • A Kiss Before Dying (1956)
      • Mogambo ('53)
      • Niagara (1953)
      • The Night of The Hunter ('55)
      • Pushover Noir City
      • Rear Window (1954)
      • Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
      • Red Dust ('32 vs Mogambo ('53)
      • The Searchers ('56)
      • Singin' in the Rain Introduction
      • Some Like It Hot ('59) >
        • Some Like it Hot Intro (Beyond the Bay)
    • The 1960's >
      • The April Fools (1969)
      • Bonnie & Clyde (1967)
      • Cape Fear ('62)
      • Cool Hand Luke (1967) Intro
      • Dr Strangelove Intro
      • For a Few Dollars More (1965)
      • Fistful of Dollars (1964)
      • The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1968)
      • The Hustler ('61) Intro
      • The Man With No Name Trilogy
      • The Misfits ('61)
      • The Umbrellas of Cherbourg/La La Land
    • The 1970's >
      • Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)
      • American Graffiti Introduction
      • Chinatown Introduction
      • The Friends of Eddie Coyle ('73)
      • Jaws Intro
    • The 1980's >
      • Blood Simple ('84)
      • A Christmas Story Intro
      • Scarface (1983)
    • The 1990's >
      • The General (1998)
    • 2000's >
      • Belfast (2021)
      • Blonde (2022)
      • Hunger (2008)
      • In Bruges (2008)
      • Joy Division
      • Mank (2020)
      • No Man's Land (2001)
      • Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)
      • Wall-E
      • Y Tu Mama Tambien (2001)
      • The Top 10 Films I watched in 2020
  • Artists
    • Actors/Actresses >
      • Joan Blondell
      • Faye Dunaway: 1967-1976
      • The Noir Villainy of Dan Duryea
      • Clark Gable Bio
      • Jean Harlow Bio
      • Veronica Lake
      • Norma Shearer
    • Directors/Producers/Cinematographers >
      • Founders Series: Alice Guy-Blache
      • John Alton
      • Joan Harrison-Producer/Writer
      • Hitchcock & Cary Grant
      • William Wellman
    • Books >
      • Book Reviews >
        • Book Review: Clark Gable by D. Bret
      • Pre-Code
      • Actor Bios
      • Film Noir
      • Director Bios
      • Studio Head Bios
      • Hollywood History
    • Studio
  • Resources
    • Sight & Sound Top 100 2022
    • NOTES >
      • American Graffiti Notes
      • Anatomy of a Murder Notes
      • The Asphalt Jungle Outline
      • Breakfast Club Notes
      • Citizen Kane Notes
      • It's A Wonderful Life Notes
      • Rebel Without a Cause Notes
      • Singin' in the Rain Notes
    • CMBA Interview/Profile
    • Bay Cinema Society Press
    • Hollywood History >
      • Production Code
      • Film Noir
  • Video Introductions
    • Video Introductions
  • Last Picture Show Notes
  • Paul Verhoeven