Word: carnera
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Schulberg's story is, with scarcely any disguise, the Primo Carnera story. Like the onetime (1933-34) heavyweight champion, Toro Moreno ("El Toro, the wild man of the Andes") is a big country bumpkin who stands 6 ft. 7¾ in., weighs 285 Ibs., and serves his opponents a punch that would scarcely be too stiff for a six-year-old's birthday party. Like Carnera, El Toro (touchingly portrayed by Wrestler Mike Lane) falls among thieves. A well-known gambler and fixologist named Nick Benko (played good and heavy by Rod Steiger) buys up his contract...
...once the first big fight, and a piece of good luck that money couldn't buy: the ex-champ, punch-drunk from his last big beating, dies in the hospital after the big boy takes him-just as Ernie Schaaf died after his 1933 fight with Carnera. Toro, a thousand headlines shout, is a killer! The story guarantees a great gate for the title fight...
...Bogart's publicity, refuses to play along with Benko's boy. "Carry him for six rounds," Benko begs. "You don't want to louse up the film rights." Baer refuses, and what happens next is a ghastly digest of the 1934 fight, in which Baer gave Carnera the most brutal beating he ever took (eleven knockdowns in eleven rounds), and won the heavyweight championship. The eleven rounds are condensed into several of the most savage minutes seen on screen in recent years, and when they are over, the ring looks like a butcher's block...
With the exception of James Mason, who either has a very strict contract or needs money, the rest of the cast is mostly composed of unemployed wrestlers headed by that Scandinavian rogue Primo Carnera. In all, the picture makes one wish to see Val and his friends in the funny papers...