BODY AND SOUL (1947) B/W 104m dir: Robert Rossen

w/John Garfield, Lilli Palmer, Anne Revere, Hazel Brooks, William Conrad, Joseph Pevney, Canada Lee, Lloyd Goff, Art Smith, James Burke

A guy from the slums battles his way to the top of the fight racket, only to learn that the crooked way isn't necessarily the best. Hard-hitting melodrama, crisp and rugged, with some excellent prizefight sequences. Palmer is near-perfect; Garfield gives his best performance. This was only the second directorial effort by Rossen (his later films include the Oscar-winning Best Picture ALL THE KING'S MEN, THE HUSTLER, and LILITH), whose predilection for intelligent psychological stories in realistic settings would subsequently get him in hot water with the House Un-American Activities Committee.

From The Movie Guide: "The fight film to which all others are compared. ... Garfield's riveting, Oscar-nominated performance lifts BODY AND SOUL to the masterpiece level, as do Robert Rossen's superb direction, the marvelous photography of James Wong Howe and the Oscar-winning editing. The fight sequences, in particular, brought a kind of realism to the genre that had never before existed (Howe wore skates and rolled around the ring shooting the fight scenes with a hand-held camera). A knockout on all levels."

BODY AND SOUL's Oscar for Best Editing went to Francis Lyon and Robert Parrish, and the film was also nominated for Best Actor and Original Screenplay (Abraham Polonsky).