The Set-Up

I want a man … not a human punching bag!
The Set-Up (1949)
Timing: 1:13 (73 min)
7.8/10
11 924

no scores
7.4/10
182
7.8/10
11000
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Roland Gross
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Short description

Expecting the usual loss, a boxing manager takes bribes from a betting gangster without telling his fighter.

What's left behind the scenes

  • In the original literary source, which was later adapted into the screenplay for this film, the boxer was named Pansy Jones (in the film he is known as Stoker Thompson), he was Black, not White, and was a polygamist (rather than the devoted husband he appears to be in the film). The fact is that RKO Studios simply did not have a Black actor under contract at the time who could be cast in the leading role. Of course, James Edwards (1918-1970) was in the film’s cast, but the studio executives felt he was not well enough known to the public to play the main character.
  • One of the first films where the depiction of an event takes exactly as much screen time as it would in real life.
  • The blind man who attends the fight and has the events in the ring described to him by his companion is based on a man who attended boxing matches in San Francisco and was once seen there by screenwriter Art Cohn (1909-1958).
  • The film had a significant influence on Martin Scorsese when he was creating *Raging Bull*.
  • The film had a significant influence on Martin Scorsese during the creation of 'Raging Bull'.
  • In the original literary source, which was later adapted into the screenplay for this film, the boxer was named Pansy Jones (in the movie, he is named Stoker Thompson), he was Black rather than white, and he was a bigamist (rather than the devoted husband portrayed in the film). This was because RKO Pictures did not have a Black actor under contract at the time who could be cast in the lead role. While James Edwards (1918-1970) was part of the cast, studio bosses felt he was not well-known enough to the public to play the protagonist.
  • The blind man attending the fight, who is told what is happening in the ring by his companion, was based on a person who attended boxing matches in San Francisco, whom screenwriter Art Cohn (1909-1958) once saw there.

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