For me, personally, the main appeal of Robert Rossen's Body and Soul isn't the fact that it was one of the first great boxing films. Instead, the most intriguing part of the film, in my opinion, concerns two performances by actors who were cheated out of the more distinguished careers that they deserved. The first was John Garfield, that chiseled contender who could have gone down as one of the great "city boys" along with Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney if his career hadn't been destroyed for not naming names for the U.S. Congressional House Committee on Un-American Activities. Garfield plays Charley Davis, a well-intentioned but weak-willed young man who becomes a champion boxer only to get pulled into the criminal underworld of mafia rackets and gambling. The second amazing performance was by Hazel Brooks as Alice, a cynical nightclub singer who helps pull Charley towards oblivion. Brooks, an actress of South African descent, is a revelation. Imagine a more exotic Lauren Bacall and with just a light peppering of Veronica Lake. It is a tragedy that her career really didn't go anywhere. Anyhow, the film is well shot, tightly edited, and deliciously performed by two great unsung actors.
7/10
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