Tonight's Movie: The Square Jungle (1955) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

The more I see of Tony Curtis, the more I admire him. He's the star of THE SQUARE JUNGLE (1955), part of the Kino Lorber Dark Side of Cinema X collection.

All three of the films in the set are boxing dramas; the other two movies are FLESH AND FURY (1952), also with Curtis, and WORLD IN MY CORNER (1956) with Audie Murphy.

I really enjoyed FLESH AND FURY at the 2016 Noir City Hollywood Festival and look forward to revisiting it soon, along with seeing the Murphy film.

In THE SQUARE JUNGLE Curtis plays Eddie Quaid, a San Francisco grocery clerk without much of a future.

Eddie's lonely widowed father (Jim Backus, seen last week in BRIGHT VICTORY) is on a clear path to alcoholism when he gets involved in a brawl and is locked up in jail.

Eddie, trying to raise funds to bail his father out, signs up for a boxing match. Sympathetic police officer McBride (Paul Kelly) brings Eddie's dad to the fight so he can see the lengths his son is going to to help him, the clear implication being he hopes it will make him think twice about drinking.

To everyone's surprise, Eddie does well in his match. McBride then stakes Eddie some money to start a boxing career and connects him with a trainer, Bernie (Ernest Borgnine). Bernie is not your usual boxing trainer; he did time in prison for killing two people in a drunk driving accident, and he now spends most of his time buried in books.

Bernie teaches Eddie a great deal about boxing, but Eddie has a lot more to learn about life. Perhaps with the support of those around him, including girlfriend Julie (Pat Crowley), Eddie will eventually mature into the man everyone hopes for.

The performances in THE SQUARE JUNGLE are all tops, starting with Curtis, who transitions from a goodhearted, rather innocent young man to someone deflated by worry and disappointment, then on to a too-cocky fight champ. The final act of this drama, after Eddie has possibly mortally slugged champ Al Gorski (John Day, aka John Daheim) is quite moving.

As might be expected, Borgnine is very good as a rather unique character in the fight world, and Backus always offers a strong performance. Kelly doesn't have a great deal of screen time but I'm always glad to see him, and he makes his scenes count.

I never particularly enjoy the fight scenes themselves in boxing movies, but the sequences here are directed with great atmosphere and an authentic-looking referee (John Marley).

I don't consider either THE SQUARE JUNGLE or FLESH AND FURY film noir, but I'm not too worried about the label; what matters is the access to the movies! Just as the Noir City Festival has sometimes shown restorations of boxing films such as FLESH AND FURY or IRON MAN (1951), Kino Lorber has incorporated a set of them into its Dark Side of Cinema collection, and I love it.

THE SQUARE JUNGLE runs 86 minutes. It was written by George Zuckerman, based on his story. The movie was directed by Jerry Hopper and filmed in black and white by George Robinson.

THE SQUARE JUNGLE Blu-ray is from a new 2K master. There are some minor flaws in the first reel, including at the end of the opening credits, but after that it settles down and is a solid print with excellent sound.

Extras are a commentary track by Eddy Von Mueller and a gallery of trailers for three additional films available from Kino Lorber.

I'll have reviews of the other films in this set here at a future date.

Update: Here are reviews of FLESH AND FURY (1952), also starring Tony Curtis, and WORLD IN MY CORNER (1956), starring Audie Murphy.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.

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