TCM watch party spotlights The Set Up (1949)
moviesJun 7, 202648488
Noir Alley on TCM held a watch party reappraising Robert Wise's 1949 boxing noir The Set Up, centering on the film's brutal final ring sequence. Robert Ryan stars as Stoker, with Wallace Ford in a key supporting role, and cinematographer Milton Krasner's black-and-white crowd shots turn spectators into a Greek-tragedy chorus. Martin Scorsese supplied audio commentary for the Blu-ray and studied The Set Up while preparing Raging Bull, underscoring the film's influence on later boxing cinema. Stoker's refusal to take a dive and the arena's silent menace make The Set Up a compact study in noir fatalism worth revisiting.
