This is a NEW and different review for this film. I had previously watched it and I was a little kinder to it. However, after seeing it again I really found the film wasn't nearly as mediocre as I remembered(it was a lot worse)--especially in the way it created caricatures instead of real and believable people. Hardly anyone in the film is very likable or believable--especially the lead, William Holden. Although he is a prodigy in boxing and with the violin, he just seems very selfish, unpredictable and stupid throughout the film. Plus, his motivation never seems clearly defined and his character just seemed hot-headed and foolish--and switching from one mood to another in mere seconds! As an example, for most of the film, he's a decent guy who likes his promoter and is infatuated with Barbara Stanwyck but then, in a matter or seconds, he casts them BOTH aside to join up with an obviously evil and slimy gangster as his NEW promoter! Huh?! This seemed only like a plot device and not something any sane or sober person would have done. Why did he do this? This is especially odd, since up until then he never acted crazy or hot-headed (just the opposite in fact).<br /><br />Now the rest of the characters, with the exception of his father (played by Lee J. Cobb), were also difficult to follow or understand and it was hard to care about them at all. It was as if they were just outlines of characters and no attempt was made to define them or help you understand them at all. The exception was Cobb--who was very well designed as a character,...except that his "Italian" accent seemed extremely broad and almost comical (sort of like having Chico Marx play the dad). This was not one of Cobb's finer moments in film.<br /><br />I think a couple other big problems with the movie is that there are MANY, MANY better boxing films (such as CHAMPION, THE SETUP, REQUIUM FOR A HEAVYWEIGHT, ROCKY, etc.) AND this plot is a re-working of the awfully dated JAZZ SINGER. Think about it, although the family is Italian and the dad wants him to be a concert violinist instead of a cantor, it's almost the exact same film. And that's sad, because apart from being the first "talkie", the JAZZ SINGER is a very clichéd and old fashioned film.<br /><br />PS--This is a wonderful film to show your kids, as it has some lovely messages concerning marriage and the treatment of women. At one point, Lee J. Cobb yells at his son-in-law because he was slapping his wife in public--"you do that in the privacy of your own home" he explains. Then, the daughter (the victim) tells her dad to be quiet, as "he can hit me ANY TIME HE WANTS!". I'm sure that Susan B. Anthony and the other Suffragettes spin in their graves every time this film is shown!!