The Last Round

Boxing on London's East End in 1944, light heavyweight Charles Bronson (as "Yank" Dawson), feels like he's getting to old to fight. "Life is sure crummy," he says, hoping he'll return to America and open a bar. Before a major bout, Mr. Bronson receives a muscle rubdown from manager Felix Deebank (as Chipper "Whitey" White), then dozes off thinking about a ghost story stirred up by rival manager Ronald Long (as Sanderson). If you see a ghost named "Paddy", you die. Is it real, or psychological warfare? Before Bronson's next fight, he thinks he sees the legendary ghost...

**** The Last Round (1/10/61) John Newland ~ Charles Bronson, Felix Deebank, Ronald Long, Wally Cassell

Charles Bronson at long last in ONE STEP BEYOND series, and for a role that suits him like a - boxing - glove. Good tale anyway, and prizefighting has never been evoked in ONE STEP BEYOND. And Bronson's presence - even in those early sixties days, when he was not still known - is a good reason to watch this gritty story. It is riveting, grabbing you as if you were yourself on a ring. This episode is really a surprise, I did not expect it and this scheme is logic in ONE STEP BEYOND show, as it could have also been in TWILIGHT ZONE series. I don't care about the fact if yes or not, this is inspired from actual events? Who cares?

Future action superstar Charles Bronson makes an early TV appearance as a professional boxer named Yank Dawson, who, in 1944 London, is preparing for a major bout with a rival boxer, but is distracted by an old superstition that if you see a long deceased boxer named Paddy you will die soon, as it is an omen of death for some reason. His manager scoffs at such tales, but Yank isn't so sure, and when he catches a glimpse of Paddy in person, becomes quite worried, threatening to cost him not only the fight, but perhaps his life... Bronson is good here, and his distinct presence is obvious, with the twist at the end coming as an abrupt surprise.

The Last Round is one of the best efforts of the One Step Beyond series, and it production values are superior to most entries in this modestly budgeted show. Set in and around a boxing arena, its offices, locker rooms and corridors, in London's East End, during the early days of World War II, when the city was under siege due to the Blitzkreig,--air attacks from the bombings of the Luftwaffe--the fear of imminent death permeates the episode from start to finish. Its qualities are such as it plays more like a mini-movie than a television show.

An overage American boxer, Yank, as portrayed by Charles Bronson, is in the fight of his life, and to make matters worse there's a folk legend in the arena that if someone sees the image of Paddy, a fighter killed in the ring many years earlier, it is an omen that one's own death is near at hand. There is also a problem of a man who closely resembles Paddy who is sometimes hired to spook boxers by a rival manager.

Under the circumstances, given what London and England in general were going through in 1940 Britons didn't need ghosts or apparitions to fear that death was imminent. Such fears were already in the air and coming from the air. This added element of danger hangs like a black cloud over all the characters in The Last Round, making it one of the darkest and most morbid episodes of One Step Beyond. The mostly British players act superbly, and the sleazy atmosphere feels real, as one can practically smell the cheap cigars and beer.