An early silent effort from Hitchcock that, like a fair amount of his early efforts, is another atypical work. The story this time around invovles a love triangle between two boxers named Jack and Bob and a woman named Nellie. Jack and Nellie are married, but their marriage is dull and flat, so she turns to Bob to get
what Jack wasn't giving her. This naturally leads to conflict between the two men and, being boxers, that conflict comes to a head in the boxing locale the film is named after.The plot is very thin, formulaic, and predictable, but it's retelling here is well played and, because of Hitch's touch, it's not the boring forgettable relic of days gone by it could have been. There's some good cinematogrpahy, neat camera tricks (some of which would be reused by Hitch later on), and some editing that's not half bad, although the transitions between the music tracks can be quite abrupt and jarring at times, and in need of some smoothing out. Despite that though, the msuic is actually quite amazing and really had me hooked into an otherwise so-so story. I know that music was vital to silent films, but even then, the music here just really sticks out for me and is what ultimately gives the film its strongest selling point (though the other positive stuff I mentioned contributes a lot as well).
October 11, 2007
