Body and Soul (Rossen, 1947): BFI Souhbank, NFT1, 12.10pm
This film, which also screens on March 30th, is part of the season devoted to boxing films at BFI Southbank. You can find all the details here.
Time Out review:
With its mean streets and gritty performances, its ringside corruption and low-life integrity, Body and Soul
looks like a formula '40s boxing movie: the story of a (Jewish) East
Side kid who makes good in the ring, forsakes his love for a nightclub
floozie, and comes up against the Mob and his own conscience when he has
to take a dive. But the single word which dominates the script is
'money', and it soon emerges that this is a socialist morality on
Capital and the Little Man - not surprising, given the collaboration of
Robert Rossen, Abraham Polonsky (script) and John Garfield, all of whom tangled with the
HUAC anti-Communist hearings (Polonsky was blacklisted as a result). A
curious mixture: European intelligence in an American frame, social
criticism disguised as noir anxiety (the whole film is cast as one long
pre-fight flashback). But Garfield's bullish performance saves the movie
from its stagy moments and episodic script.
Chris Auty
Here (and above) is the trailer.
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