Requiem for a Heavyweight
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Requiem for a Heavyweight was originally a 1956 teleplay written by Rod Serling and produced for the live television show Playhouse 90 in 1957, then was filmed as a movie with a different cast five years later.
The teleplay won a Peabody Award, the first given to an individual script, and helped establish Serling's reputation. The broadcast was directed by Ralph Nelson.
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[edit] Plot synopsis
Jack Palance portrays Harlan 'Mountain' McClintock, a washed-up boxer who faces the end of his career after he is savagely defeated by a younger boxer. Keenan Wynn portrays McClintock's manager Maish; Keenan's father Ed plays McClintock's cut man, Army.
McClintock is suffering from Dementia pugilistica or "punch drunk syndrome" -- brain damage caused by his career. A fight doctor refuses to certify McClintock for further boxing, saying that another rough match could blind or even kill him. Boxing is all McClintock has ever known, and he's both terrified of trying something new, and intensely loyal to Maish, who has nurtured him from his youth.
Kim Hunter plays Grace Carney, an employment agency worker who tries to help the boxer make a transition to a new career. Maish has troubles of his own, however: he owes money to the Mafia, and tried to raise funds by betting against McClintock. He persuades the boxer to turn to professional wrestling, though McClintock is proud that he never had a fixed fight, and is uncomfortable with the staged, predetermined wrestling match.
Army disaproves of Maish's plans, and refuses to be a part of them. Just before he's scheduled to go into the ring in a humiliating mountain man costume, McClintock learns of Maish's betrayal, and parts ways with him. Though he feels that boxing can ruin men's lives, Maish finds another promising young boxer to train. McClintock takes a chance on working with children at summer camp.
Serling and Palance were both experienced boxers, which might help explain why Requiem was so authentic and effective, although there was very little boxing depicted in the broadcast.
[edit] The Movie Version
Ralph Nelson also directed a movie version in 1962 with Anthony Quinn in the role originated by Jack Palance and Jackie Gleason and Mickey Rooney in the parts portrayed on television by Keenan Wynn and his father Ed Wynn. Muhammed Ali, then still using his birth name, Cassius Clay, appears as Quinn's opponent in a boxing match at the beginning of the movie, a memorable sequence filmed with the camera providing Quinn's point of view as the unstoppable Clay punches directly at the movie audience.
[edit] Related works
In 1960, Ralph Nelson wrote and directed The Man in the Funny Suit, a dramatic account of Keenan Wynn's travails in helping his father, legendary comedian Ed Wynn, play such a serious role in Requiem for a Heavyweight. The Man in the Funny Suit was telecast as an installment of the Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse, with Rod Serling and Red Skelton playing themselves.
[edit] External links
- Film Page
- Requiem for a Heavyweight at the Internet Movie Database (1962 film)
