Not Quite Classics: The Ring (1952)

Boxing and movies have gone hand-in-hand ever since audiences saw Bob Fitzsimmons KO Gentleman Jim Corbett with a blow to the solar plexus in 1897. High in drama and low in cost, boxing has been a staple subject for the movie industry, from Body and Soul to Requiem for a Heavyweight, from Rocky to Raging Bull. The movies I review, however, won’t be appearing on any Top 10 lists. Or any Top 50, for that matter. But what these B-movies lack in name recognition, they more than make up for with their blunt charisma, their quirks, and their unexpected cameos. These are the sometimes-forgotten pictures that shaped the genre we know today. Join me in rooting for these cinematic underdogs as we explore some of boxing’s Not Quite Classics.

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Posters for 1952’s The Ring promised a titillating mix of sex and violence. “I was slaughtered to please the crowd!” proclaims one poster in flashy letters. “They call me ‘Dirty Mex,’ but still they chase my women!” screams another. Despite the exploitation-style advertising, The Ring has more in common with the “social issue” or “message movie” genres, offering an empathetic look into poverty and racism.

Tomas “Tommy” Cantanios is a young Mexican-American man living with his working-class family in Los Angeles. Tomas’s father has just been laid off “When an Anglo becomes old,” he says, “he’s promoted to a Boss. But when a Mexican becomes old, he is laid off.” On a date with his girl Lucy (played by Rita Morena), Tommy gets fed up with the racism they encounter and he unleashes his anger in a streetfight. By chance Pete, a boxing manager, is driving by and sees the brawl. He offers to train Tommy and promises him the chance to make something of himself.

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Tommy Cantanios begins fighting professionally as Tommy Kansas. He fights well in pre-lim four-rounders, but when he moves up to six-round semi-final fights, Tommy finds himself outclassed. After a few losses, he is feeling serious self-doubt. However, a night out with his friends convinces Tommy that it pays “to be somebody,” and he re-doubles his effort in the gym. At his next fight, the main event challenger drops out, and Tommy is brought up to fight real-life lightweight boxer Art Aragon (who would later appear in 1972’s Fat City). Hopelessly outgunned, Tommy is laid out by a brutal right hook in the second round.

After the fight, Tommy decides to never fight again. He feels lost until Lucy returns and convinces him that “nothing is a waste if you learn from it.” She reminds him of the good he did helping his family with the prize-money from his fights, and promises to stick with him as he tries something new. It’s a very moral end to a clean-cut little picture.

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The Ring was written by Irving Shulman, based on his novel. Around this same time, Shulman also wrote an early treatment for Rebel Without a Cause, and it isn’t difficult to see in The Ring elements that would later appear in Rebel. Like Tommy, James Dean’s character Jim Stark is a fighter, distrustful of authority. Both are decent kids struggling to secure their places in a hostile world.

Tommy hoped boxing could provide an escape through money and fame – by “being somebody” – but ultimately he realizes he simply doesn’t have the skill to make it in the squared circle. While boxing cannot save Tommy from the world, it does not drag him down, either, as the sport does in other boxing movies. Those pictures showed fighters struggling with their selfishness, vanity, and excess, attributes which laid dormant in the fighters, inner struggles made visible. But Tommy bears the ills of the sport with integrity; he’s honest, and he cares about those around him. His struggle is not so much with himself as with the world and the reality of its racism.

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And The Ring sought to address that racism head-on. In one scene, Tommy and his friends enter an upscale Anglo diner and are refused service. A police officer is called to remove them, but here the script ran afoul of the Hollywood’s Production Code Association, who wouldn’t let an officer be shown to discriminate based on race. In a show of pro-police propaganda, the officer turns out to be a fight fan who recognizes Tommy. Instead of hassling the boys, he forces the diner to serve them.

Although it’s boxing sequences aren’t particularly memorable, the inclusion of Art Aragon does give some added realism to the movement. Thoughtful and unfortunately still timely in its treatment of racial discrimination, The Ring is a surprisingly compassionate glimpse into a young boxer’s short career.

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More ‘Not Quite Classic’ reviews:
Iron Man (1931)
They Never Come Back (1932)
The Prize Fighter and the Lady (1933)
They Made Me a Criminal (1939)
The Contender (1944)
Day of the Fight (1951)
Flesh and Fury (1952)
Kid Monk Baroni (1952)