hard times

Director: walter hill

Actor: charles bronson,james coburn,jill ireland,strother martin

Data Published: Wed Aug 13 1975

Genres: Crime,Drama,Sport

Key Words: prizefighting,street fighter,1930s,great depression,drifter

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073092/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_Times_(1975_film)

Description: Hard Times is a movie starring Charles Bronson, James Coburn, and Jill Ireland. The adventures of a drifter turned illegal prize-fighter during the Depression Era in New Orleans.

Plot: A man dressed in simple clothes with a hobo appearance carrying a handbag jumps down from the boxcar of a slow-moving train on the outskirts of an anonymous town somewhere in Louisiana. He soon comes upon a bare-knuckled street fight run by gamblers, which he intently observes. After the bout, the man approaches the fast-talking "Speed", the backer of the losing fighter. Introducing himself as Chaney, he asks Speed to set up a fight for him, which Speed does. Before the fight, his opponent, the winner of the contest he previously witnessed, looks Chaney up and down and asks disparagingly if he isn't a little too old to be there. Betting all of the six dollars he possesses on himself, Chaney responds by dispatching the younger man with a single punch. Suitably impressed, Speed offers to become Chaney's manager, but Chaney cautions Speed that he needs only enough money to "fill a few in-betweens" before moving on. They travel to New Orleans where Speed plans to match Chaney against local fighters at long odds. Chaney finds lodgings in a rundown rooming house. At a diner, he meets Lucy Simpson (Jill Ireland), a lonely woman whose husband is in prison. They begin an uneasy affair. Speed recruits the genteel but slightly decrepit cutman, Poe (Strother Martin), "a dyed in the wool hophead" whose spell at medical school many years before was cut short, Poe confesses, due to his fondness for opium. Chaney nonetheless accedes to Speed's request and accepts Poe's services at the going rate. Speed arranges another fight, this time in bayou country. Chaney, Speed and Poe are accompanied on the trip by Speed's lady friend, Gayleen (Margaret Blye). Chaney easily disposes of the Cajun hitter, but the hitter's sponsor, Pettibon (Edward Walsh), refuses to pay up on the grounds that Chaney is a ringer. Chaney seems to accept matters and persuades the indignant Speed to leave. However, later that evening Chaney and his retinue appear unannounced at Pettibon's backwoods honky-tonk. Overcoming Pettibon's confederates with his fists, Cheney seizes a pistol, forces Pettibon to turn over the unpaid cash, and proceeds to shoot up Pettibon's joint until all the bullets are discharged. The troupe drives back to New Orleans in high spirits. Speed next arranges for Chaney to take on the city's undefeated bare-knuckle fighter Jim Henry (Robert Tessier), an intimidating brawler with a bald pate and bull neck, who is bankrolled by wealthy businessman Chick Gandil (Michael McGuire). Gandil insists that Speed put up $3,000 instead of the stake of $1000 that Speed had anticipated. To cover the shortfall, Speed obtains a loan from a gang of local mobsters headed by Doty (Bruce Glover). Chaney fights Jim Henry, who resists stubbornly but finally succumbs, beaten to the ground under a flurry of blows from Chaney. The trio of Chaney, Speed and Poe celebrate at a juke joint with their lady friends. Speed gets into a game of dice and gambles away his share of the winnings. The mobsters stalk Speed because of the money he owes. Gandil attempts to get Chaney to switch sides and fight for him. Speed is willing because it will square his debts, but Chaney refuses to go along, and they argue bitterly. As well, Lucy ends her affair with Chaney, dissatisfied with his emotional distance and lack of commitment. Meanwhile, Gandil brings in a top fighter from Chicago, the aptly named Street (Nick Dimitri), a sleek and silent gent who arrives at the train station expensively clad in a black hat and black leather blazer, and whose baggage the demoted Jim Henry is now required to carry. Unable to draw Chaney into a winner-take-all bout, Gandil pays off Speed's debt and takes him hostage. If there is no fight, threatens Gandil, Speed will be killed. Poe visits Chaney at the rooming house to tell him about Speed's predicament. Chaney comes to Gandil's warehouse where the fight will take place. Not only is he forced to fight for Speed's life, but he must risk all of his own winnings. Street proves a formidable opponent. The two take turns knocking each other down. Eventually Chaney wins the grueling bout, but not before Street, on his hands and knees, refuses Gandil's demand that he use extraordinary means (a pair of brass cylinders) to avert defeat, sweeping them aside when they are placed on the ground in front of him. Instead, Street gamely staggers to his feet and goes down swinging. Speed's life is spared. True to his word, Chaney decides the time has come to move on. He gives Speed and Poe a generous cut of the winnings and walks alone towards the railroad tracks. As Chaney disappears into the darkness, Speed declares, "He sure was something."