Borgnine reading books, working in what appears to be a municipal library, and quoting from the Talmud are the most unusual aspects about THE SQUARE JUNGLE. The fact that he is a former San Quentin inmate restores normality to his character. Also in 1955, he won the Oscar for MARTY, and those were the two flicks in which he played his most memorably decent characters of his acting career - and he did superbly in both, as it is much easier to act villain than good.
Pretty boy Curtis does his part competently enough, especially when he argues with his Dad, capably played by Jim Backus, Borgnine, and with copper Paul Kelly. He kisses lovely Crowley and seems to genuinely care for her, but one never really gets to know what bombshell Snowden amounted to in his heart, or even what her real aims were in seeking his company.
What is emphatically clear is that Curtis' boxing technique would never allow him to survive the first minute in a real ring.
Director Jerry Hopper, better known for his TV work than films, does a reasonable job, but he is not helped by the script. The fact that Curtis graduates from a fight at the local training center to earn $25 to pay his father's release from incarceration, to competing for middleweight champion of the world in about the same breath, forced me to suspend all my disbelief. Editing was nothing to write home about, either.
What made me watch the rest was that Daheim was a truly likeable opponent, married and with four children, and you just know something awful will be happening to him. You watch three fights between the two men where two would have sufficed and then some.
The boxing sequences suffer from the fact that I could not believe Curtis would make it as a street fighter, let alone a boxing world champion, but after a while I just tried to accept it and watched the rest amiably enough.
Good to see Joe Louis in the ring, albeit as a guest.
Time waser with nothing too memorable or that you ain't seen before.
