The Set-Up (1949) DVD

Journeyman boxer Stoker Thompson (Robert Ryan) thinks that he has one last good fight in him in order to get a payout and retire from the ring. His wife Julie (Audrey Trotter) pleads for him to quit whilst his manager Tiny (George Tobias) is so convinced that his man is going to lose that he has taken money from the mob in exchange for his man taking a 'dive'. Unaware that his manager has double-crossed him and that he will be a target for the mob if he wins, Stoker strains every sinew of his raw courage to knock out his opponent. 

Director, Robert Wise, pulls no punches in this gritty drama whose boxing scenes are all the more realistic for Robert Ryan having been a college boxing champion. Hailed by many as one of the greatest films of the 1940's, with its seventy-two minutes playing out in real time, The Set-Up is worthy of its BAFTA nomination.