Dorothy Mallinson: “I wish I could write the way you talk.”
Tommy Shea: “It’s easy. All you have to do is be born in a dump, educated in an alley.”
One of the popular themes that would creep into the film noir post World War II was the disillusioned, trauma-filled, alienated veteran who has returned home from Europe to find himself in just as difficult a situation as before. . . with one example being today’s review of the dramatic boxing noir World in My Corner (1956), directed by Jesse Hibbs.
Following war veteran Tommy Shea (Audie Murphy), upon returning home to New Jersey, not only does he feel like he has always been from the wrong side of the river, but he has also been let go from his job.
With little to no options, he decides to take up boxing, but the southpaw is not all that good at the sport. Originally under the wing of his slippery friend Ray Kacsmerek (Tommy Rall), he has contact with the crooked kingpin of the New York boxing world, Harry Cram (Howard St. John).
Somehow finally getting a bit of a helping hand, trainer Dave Bernstein (John McIntire) catches one of his fights, and with the blessing of his wealthy boss Robert T. Mallinson (Jeff Morrow – The Creature Walks Among Us) – who gets a kick out of the chip on Tommy’s shoulder, allows the kid to move in and do odd jobs for him while also getting the proper training from Bernstein.
As Bernstein has the boxer switch to a more traditional stance so that he instead leads with jabs with his stronger left hand, he slowly starts to climb the ranks in Jersey, catching the eye of some in the sporting world, including Kacsmerek’s fix-heavy contact Cram.
Bernstein, who has been hoodwinked many times before by sleazy Cram, is hesitant to agree to any bout with the scoundrel, while Tommy is instead blinded by two things, the prospect of lots of money, and also winning over his benefactor’s somewhat haughty writing daughter Dorothy (Barbara Rush – It Came from Outer Space), who despite disliking the rough sport, kind of has a thing for the boxer as he is from the wrong side of the tracks and possibly an out from her controlling father and his manipulative ways.
Coming to a head, Cram uses Kacsmerek to reach out about offering the kid a big payday for him throwing the fight to the champ, while benefactor Mallinson gets his hooks into him to not only take the financial fights to elevate his status, but also polish him up into a more civilized person.
Much to the chagrin of Dorothy, who likes his rough charm that is very much the opposite of her father, his trainer also has bad vibes – as he knows the path taking a fixed fight will lead him down. What will Tommy choose to do? Might Cram fight dirty if he chooses to take the honest way? Or could all of the negative influences have Tommy lean in the wrong direction?
Not having some of the complexity and pizzazz of more elevated boxing noirs (think The Harder They Fall; The Set- Up), World in My Corner is still a competent sports themed movie with a lot of elements to like. You really can’t beat even an ordinary underdog story, while the boxing sequences actually look quite good (again, like in other films of the time, real boxers Chico Vejar, Art Aragon, and Cisco Andrade were used in the bouts with Audie Murphy – in fact, Andrade said that Murphy was, “the first actor I ever saw who wasn’t afraid of getting hit hard in a prize fight scene.”. Being a noir set in the mid 1950s, the coverage shown on television in the Mallinson estate is kind of cool to see as well. The opening credits, all woven within a Jersey newspaper, is a clever way to introduce the cast and crew, while the advertising posters also pop – check out the original Belgian movie poster used to promote the feature throughout the country. So, don’t throw this fight, it certainly doesn’t deserve any ribbing.