Cinema Revisited: Ringside (1949) A low budget boxing drama.

Ringside

Directed by Frank McDonald. Cast: Don Barry, Tom Brown, Sheila Ryan, Joseph Crehan, Joey Adams, Margia Dean, Lyle Talbot. 68 minutes. Screen Guild Productions.

This low budget boxing drama is obviously inspired by “City For Conquest” (1940), a Warner film starring James Cagney and Arthur Kennedy. “Ringside” follows the story of two brothers, both boxers, one of whom leaves the ring to explore his interest in being a concert pianist, the other being blinded in a fight. The pianist returns to the ring to avenge his brother.

The plot is hokey and the budget is threadbare, but this low level B movie is nevertheless competently entertaining. Frank McDonald, the director, has no distinct style other than to mask the budgetary limitations (the use of close-ups in the fight scenes is a neat touch). A small room that appears as a gym where the workout scenes are presented, also doubles as an arena when the set is darkened and crowd noise is dubbed in. With the right editing and camera placement, McDonald pulls this off pretty effectively under the circumstances. McDonald’s best work is probably the Roy Rogers westerns he helmed, including “My Pal Trigger” and “Bells of Rosarita.”

As often occurs in low budget movies of the post-war era, the film gathers a cast of pretty solid B movie stalwarts. Don Barry, who made his name in westerns, has a strong, effective presence as the pianist boxer. Tom Brown, whose effervescence effectively sustained a lot of wartime movies, offers an impressive performance as the blinded fighter. Brown has the more challenging role, having to exhibit tough determination as the successful fighter, and present the frustration and anger that occurs once he’s been handicapped. Sheila Ryan is attractive and acceptable as the leading lady, responding to the drama and helping to sustain the narrative. However, the love triangle introduced, where she is the boxer’s girl but ends up falling for the pianist, is a distracting tangent.

The film is rounded out by familiar, welcome character actors like Joseph Crehan, Lyle Talbot, Chester Clute, William Edmunds, and Joey Adams.

The boxing scenes are realistically filmed, especially for such a low budget production, and the inevitable montage scenes that display the boxer’s continued success in the ring are nicely edited, hampered slightly by the music used as a backup (nothing scored for the film, just stock stuff that a lot of low budget studios used). And there is an interesting addition to the pianist boxer – he carefully wins all of his fights by decision, refusing to knock out any opponents. He is saving his hands, not for the piano, which would make sense, but for his eventually earning a match with the man who destroyed his brother’s career. His intent is to kill the man in the ring.

“Ringside” was quickly shot in a week or so, and runs a brisk 68 minutes. It was specifically produced as a second-feature, supporting a main attraction from a bigger studio. Taken on those terms, it is a very good movie of its kind.

The print screened for this review was on DVD in the Forgotten Noir collection volume 8, produced by Kit Parker and released by VCI. It is available here.