The Ring (1952) User Reviews

Well written and acted story of Latin pride and honor.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 17 November 2002]

Lalo Rios is Tommy, a young boy who turns to boxing to help out his struggling family in early 1950's Los Angeles. He learns about a lot more than just how to fight in this 80 minute art house type drama, including about how his values don't always mix with the values of those trying to get him ahead in the business. Rios is outstanding, and it is surprising considering he never became a bigger star. The only name actor in this film is Academy Award Winning Rita Moreno as his sweet girlfriend. Then just starting out her career with a few appearances in MGM musicals ("The Toast of New Orleans" & "Pagan Love Song") to name a few, the future "Anita" of "West Side Story's" film version is one of the few good people in Tommy's life who cares for him, not for his success as a boxer.

The scene where Tommy and his pals go into a restraunt in Beverly Hills after a boxing match Tommy looses is quite revealing about attitudes towards Latinos (and probably other minorities) during the early 1950's. The waitress reluctantly places glasses of water (spilling most of it) at their table, then calls the police, prepared for trouble. She then goes about her business, ignoring them, and waiting on the white customers at the tables around them. When the policeman arrives, he seems suspicious at first, but then is actually sympathetic when he realizes that the boys are not up to no good, just misunderstood. It is a remarkable scene, not played for any type of shock value, but just to make the audience aware of how little prejudices can lead to bigger ones, and ultimately, cause the types of race and gang wars seen in the newspapers every day.

There are also some touching understated moments where Tommy's younger brother begins to show idol worship, and Tommy begins to realize how his ambitions are affecting the future of his younger brother. This leads to the final scene where Tommy confronts all of these demons. The final is very powerful, leading to an ending which some might consider "incomplete", but it actually does reflect reality, ending one chapter in his life, and moving onto wherever his life happens to take him.

While not a fan of boxing movies, I found "The Ring" to be engrossing because of the sympathetic way it presented the young hero, not type casting. A bit at the beginning where Tommy's father, ailing at work, is called a lazy Mexican by two American tourists, is very revealing too about the way many white people then (and even today) look at people of different cultures. Anyone who sees this film will find the scene disturbing, and may see the prejudices in themselves that they have always tried to keep hidden. For a small and simple film, "The Ring" says a lot, and achieves more than some of the bigger films released at the same time.

Raging Toro

[mthfllof · 5/10 · 5 February 2001]

"This is Los Angeles: sprawling metropolis of the west. It's a beautiful city. It walks like a young giant from the mountains down to the sea. It has shiny buildings and modern freeways. Almost engulfed by the city surrounding it lies a little street "Olvera street." A street that appears to be forgotten by time."

Thus starts the movie with tourists taking pictures of "the lazy Mexicans."

A Mexican family falls on hard times when the father is laid off. Bad timing, it turns out. The family had just bought new furniture and are very proud of the blue sofa and matching chairs (the film is b&w so the chairs look grey to us). "Send it back!" demands the father. The son says he will get a job to help pay for the furniture but the father says "you are only a boy." Storming out of the house the son goes to "the clubhouse" to see his friends. Harassed by bigoted white police and denied service by white owned businesses "Tommy" lets his rage out and gets in a fight.

Tommy is seen fighting by a talent scout - one who is interested in making Tommy a professional fighter. "Don't you want to be something? Do you want to be pushed around like your dad?" Tommy is convinced and "Tommy Kansas" is born.

Tommy's father thinks it's a disgrace. "I am a poor man, but I am not a brute!" But the rest of the family is behind him. "If you do not give up fighting you will leave this house!" exclaims his father as he storms off.

I will admit to not being a big boxing fan. This film, however, kept my interest. The main character "Tommy" is well played and his transformation from naive street kid to young seasoned boxer makes this film worthwhile.

The Arena Of Life Is Not Just A Squared Circle

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 16 April 2008]

Even the cheap production values of The Ring which admittedly looks like it was shot on chump change give it a look of authenticity. The Ring is a fine film about a young Mexican-American kid who thinks that boxing could be his ticket out of the slums. The lead here is played by young Lalos Rios who went on to a substantial career for the next twenty years.

Better known of course is Rita Moreno who was doing her fourth film and she plays Rios's girl friend. It's a part light years different from Anita in West Side Story.

Lalos Rios plays young Tommy Cantanios whose family is going through a real financial crisis. His father is laid off from work and they owe a lot of money for furniture on credit. Young Tommy asks to help, but his father, Martin Garralaga sluffs off the offer.

In the history of Mexican-Americans, The Ring tells its story in a time almost halfway between the zoot suit rioters of the Forties and the organization of migrant farm laborers by Cesar Chavez in the Sixties. Still a time when the discrimination that brought on the zoot suit riots was very real.

After a couple of encounters with some discrimination young Rios gets a lift by chance from fight manager Gerald Mohr who sees some possibilities in the kid. He takes him under his wing and changes his professionally to Tommy Kansas. He and trainer Robert Osterloh bring him up the ranks slowly.

Of course Rios is impatient and Mohr starts to question whether he really does have the talent to make it really big in the fight game.

The Ring is a very realistic film about the fight game and life in East Los Angeles in the Fifties. Look also for good performances from Jack Elam as a sleazy fight promoter and from Art Aragon who was a popular welterweight boxer from back in the day who later went into acting after his ring days were done.

Rios learns two very valuable lessons, one is best summed up by that eminent American philosopher Clint Eastwood who once remarked a man's got to know his limitations. But even more important Rios learns that The Ring is not the only place he can fight for his beliefs and his people. The arena of life is not just a squared circle.

Don't you want to have people look up instead of down on you!

[sol1218 · 6/10 · 8 July 2009]

**SPOILERS** With his dad laid off from his job young Tommy Cantanios, Lalo Rios, is left to become the Contanios family bread-winner. It's only by accident that Tommy finds out that he can cut it in the ring by flooring a couple "gringo's" who make some nasty remarks about him, being a Mexican/American, and is girlfriend Lucy Gomaz, Rita Moreno.

Being rescued from the pursuing police by the sharp eyed boxing manager Pete Ganusa, Gerald Mohr, Tommy is talked into becoming a prize fighter in that, as Pete tells him, he's got what it takes to be in the ring and be successful at it. Against his fathers Mr. Contanios, Martin Garralaga, and Lucy's advice Tommy turns to boxing-changing his name to Tommy Kansas-and in no time at all runs up a streak of eight straight, with one draw, wins in the ring.

Just as everything was going well for Tommy his ego took control of his senses in thinking that he's a lot better then his both manager Pete and trainer Freddy Jack, Robert Osterloh, feel he is. Instead of working his way up for a championship bout Tommy wants to fight top contenders which leads to him being badly beaten in his next fight against the far more seasoned and experienced Chocolate Ganz.

It's when Tommy is given a chance to fight the hard hitting and crafty Art Aragon, after Art's opponent was found to be too drunk to step into the ring with him, that he felt that this will be his ticket to the Welterweight Crown. By him knocking out Aragon and proving to himself as well as the boxing world that he's the real deal, championship material, not just a cheap imitation. Even though Aragon was willing to carry Tommy for a few rounds-to make the fight look good for him-and then get down to business-by knocking Tommy out-Tommy messes up the whole fight by trying to slug it out with Aagon as soon as the fight starts. Which turned out to be a misguided and almost fatal mistake on his part!

Besides the very exciting fight sequences in the movie what really hit the spot is how Mexican/Americans were treated in places like L.A, back then in the early 1950's. Tommy was a good kid who never looked for trouble but it was his Mexican background that made him and his friends be treated like they was some kind of outcasts,like victims of leprosy or bubonic plague, from society. The one scene that brought that out was when Tommy and his friends tried to be served at a local L.A diner. Totally ignored and even antagonized by the waitress and owner of the diner it wasn't until a cop, Jon Crawford, who was called to the scene that Toomy & Co. were served at all! And that wasn't because in the policemen upholding Tommy's and his friends rights, as Americans citizens as well as just human beings, but in that he was impresses in Tommy's boxing exploits in the ring!

The Ring throws some punches at society.

[st-shot · 6/10 · 22 March 2020]

East LA local Lalo Rios has a quick temper and quick hands. When a fight promotor (Gerald Mohr) gets him out of a street scrap arrest he takes him on as a boxer, much to his proud father's chagrin. Things start out rosy as "Kid Kansas" wins his first three fights. The undisciplined Rios soon goes diva as his skills dull and his beatings increase.

The Ring is a sincere little effort that shows brief flourishes of style but is unable to go the distance or rank with the heavyweights of the genre. There are split second shots that evoke Raging Bull and Mohr's manager is a switch from the usual exploitive orgre to down to earth realist but Lalo Rios's pugnacious Tomas is a flat lead unable to go the distance.

The film's most notable feature is the injection of institutional racism that culminates in a Beverly Hills restaurant scene which not only comments on race but status as well. Neither champ or tomato can The Ring is a game low-budget effort.

Gritty drama with a social slant

[daniele-iannarelli · 6/10 · 1 June 2019]

Quite a good little B movie with more of a social message than one of boxing.

Boxing was (and, to an extent, still is) a way out of comparative social deprivation. This film highlights one youngster's attempts to rise from a society of prejudice and oppression by entering the boxing ring as a professional fighter.

A nice change from the norm is that in this movie the kid turns out to be mediocre and loses enough fights to indicate he's not going to be getting far as a prizefighter.

However, he does well enough to set his ageing father up in business after which he decides to call it a day as far as prizefighting is concerned.

The love interest is played by a young (and beautiful) Rita Moreno.

Nice little cameo performance by Jack Elam.

Interesting and enjoyable little film.

"If he can learn to box, he might be alright."

[classicsoncall · 6/10 · 4 February 2023]

For a good primer on what race relations were like in the Fifties, try to get hold of this obscure film from 1952. Though some other reviewers found the apparent disregard for the six Mexican American youths in the diner scene to be overtly racist, what I found even more telling was the sign at the skating rink ticket counter when Tommy Catanios (Lalo Rios) tried to buy tickets for himself and girlfriend Lucy (a very young Rita Moreno). There it stated, 'Colored Night - Tuesday' and 'Mexican Night - Thursday! By comparison, the name of Tommy's boxing opponent in his eighth fight might not have been quite as offensive; the black boxer's name was Chocolate Gomez!

The story otherwise is somewhat standard. Young tough guy Tommy gets into a street scuffle with a couple white guys who insulted him and Lucy, and he's 'discovered' by fight manager Pete Ganusa (Gerald Mohr). After winning a handful of preliminary fights, Tommy's ego demands a higher spot on the card, and he's put up against better opponents to test his abilities with mixed results. He comes up with a stadium draw in his fourth bout, but takes a decision loss to the aforementioned Ganz a few weeks later. When a shyster promoter (Jack Elam) offers Ganusa and Tommy's trainer (Robert Osterloh) a main event, Tommy jumps at the chance, even though the experienced fight men know better and try to decline. Finally, Ganusa demands a hefty fee from the manager of the boxer Tommy's replacing in the main event and a deal is struck. Trying to do the right thing by his fighter, Ganusa asks Tommy's opponent to take it easy in the ring and carry Tommy until he eventually prevails for the win. Real life boxer Art Aragon agrees, but when Tommy comes on strong thinking he can win, the more experienced fighter drops him for a stinging knockout.

Disconsolate and contemplating his loss, Tommy burns his ring jacket and confides in Lucy that he feels washed up with no other prospects in life. Lucy's determination encourages him to seek success in another endeavor, just as he was temporarily successful in the boxing ring. As an example, she points to Tommy's father (Martin Garralaga), recently unemployed, who used the money that Pete Ganusa gave Tommy for taking the Aragon fight to set up his own stall selling merchandise in the Mexican district of Los Angeles. That might have been the only time I've seen a boxing manager do the right thing instead of pocketing the money for himself.

A boxing movie ahead of its time

[Junker-2 · 8/10 · 20 January 2008]

While obviously made as a "B" feature in its day, "The Ring" is a surprisingly good little flick deserving of far better than the relatively low rating (a 5.6 as I write this) it is currently receiving here on the IMDb.

"The Ring" starts off as a typical boxing "rags to riches" story. A young kid gets into a street fight just as a boxing manager happens to be passing by. Liking what he sees, the manager vows to turn the fiery youngster into a star.

Halfway through the film, however, the "rags to riches" storyline begins to turn and a much deeper side is revealed. More than a decade before the civil rights movement became a large issue in American society, "The Ring" tackled head-on topics such as stereotypes and racial discrimination.

The issues raised are still very relevant today, 56 years after this film was made. Are professional sports truly a way out for impoverished minorities? Or just an unobtainable illusion? And is becoming white the only way for minorities to become accepted into our society? (What could be whiter than a ring name of Tommy Kansas?) All this and a young Rita Moreno, too!...as the "girl next door" love interest.

"The Ring" is not a perfect 5 star film, but it was a movie truly ahead of its time. If you give it a try sometime I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Never Quite Adds Up

[boblipton · 7/10 · 7 June 2019]

Fight manager Gerald Mohr notices Lalo Rios in a street fight and thinks he can promote him into a real fighter. Rios turns out to be someone with a lot of talent, but lacking discipline. When he gets beat up bad, he determines to buckle down.

This King Brother feature has a lot to recommend itself with a script by Irving Shulman, and a complex and beautiful performance by Mohr. Director of Photography Russel Harlan was just on the edge of being recognized as a great cinematographer. The first of seven Oscar nominations would arrive the following year. However, even though you can see all the hallmarks of REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE in the script, it doesn't add up. To say that Rios was not James Dean is obvious, but perhaps it would be more accurate to say that director Kurt Neumann was not Nicholas Ray; and despite a great diner scene with John Crawford, this remains a very ethnic picture, with great performances scattered here and there that never gel.

Classic B movie

[non_sportcardandy · 9/10 · 26 March 2011]

A young Rita Moreno playing the sweet girl next door,Jack Elam in a tweed sport coat and floppy hat as a sleazy boxing promoter...Wow,I can't ask for much more.Movie was made when I was a youngster,watching it now it looks so nostalgic almost like being in a dream for me.Many scenes look to be shot on location and remind me of my own slum.Shiny old cars,carhops,old houses,etc are just icing on the cake.The story?Young Chicano trying to bust out of poverty by being a boxer also facing discrimination which was more blatant back then.All the cast gives realistic presentations...Some things don't change with time,like an angry young man being calmed down by the soft words of his girl(Rita)...Although crazy about boxing I don't like boxing movies which this is,part of the reason I didn't give it a 10.

Rising to Spiritual and Moral Victory...

[higherall7 · 7/10 · 20 September 2022]

This is a B movie about Boxing that proves to be a delightful surprise. What it lacks in technical sophistication it more than makes up for in sincerity and heart. Lalo Rios is sympathetic and engaging as Tomas Cantanios, a simple hearted young man who wants more than anything else to see his family do well and to contribute his part to their success. We discover early on that Tomas' father, Vidal, wants more than material success or new furniture. He wants the dignity of the kind of work that puts him outside the reach of socially enforced Latino stereotypes.

That is one of the strongest features of this socially conscious drama. The story presents Tomas and his family and friends dealing on an everyday basis with the social restrictions that prove to be part and parcel of the Chicano experience. Like many of his buddies, Tomas struggles with his own unexpressed resentment and a common cultural angst that he finds as difficult to communicate as the rest of his community. When it unexpectedly spills out into actual physical blows, he finds his furtive attempts to lash out taken as a possible talent for pugilism by a roving boxing scout named Pete Ganusa. Gerald Mohr portrays this poor man's version of Humphrey Bogart, offering a helping hand to a young kid so he can emerge out of his poverty stricken predicament with sensitivity and grace. He advises Tomas that with a little dedication and training he might well turn his anger and rage into a marketable commodity in the ring.

At this point, it would have been so easy and predictable to have this drama go the way of the CHAMPION (1949) starring Kirk Douglas or ROCKY (1976), with the fury driven performance of Sylvester Stallone. But it thankfully does not go in that direction. Except for flashes of boxing scenes that have a tinge of the pathos to be found in Martin Scorsese's RAGING BULL (1980), this character study of a Latino youth coming of age goes in a refreshingly different direction. While doing all he can to profit from the counseling and guidance of his now fight manager Pete and his trainer Freddy Jack as played by Robert Osterioh, we see Tomas growing increasingly impatient with his progress as a successful boxer. This desire for near overnight fame and fortune causes him to exhibit lapses in judgement that arrest his development as an up and coming contender as much as the prejudice he finds himself forced to confront as a Mexican-American.

No, Tomas does not make it to Championship contention. What he does accomplish is the victory of self discovery. Because of his adventures in the fight game, he comes to realize that his horizons are not roped off to include only the space inside the boxing ring. There is something heartwarming about the revelations of dawning maturation and growth that he shares with his girlfriend Lucy as played by the renowned Rita Moreno. This dovetails well with the sight of his father finally running a business of his own within the dignity and the respect of his community.

This is a wholly different character arc from what the venerable Kirk Douglas does with his grim, brutal portrayal of the making of a monster in the CHAMPION (1949). It is more hopeful than the Rocky Balboa saga, where the titular protagonist keeps going back to the well for the waters of fame and riches because he cannot successfully transition into a new career beyond boxing. It is also heartwarming to see Tomas reject the corrupting influence of the fight game with the unspoken, steadfast support of his family and the girl he loves. This is a far cry and light years away from the tragic insecurity and driving need to experience supremacy that fuels Robert DeNiro's Oscar winning turn as Jake LaMotta in RAGING BULL (1980). I would rate this film higher were we to find out more in passing about the Latino historical perspective. Also it would have been great to see Tomas then encounter someone like Hymie Escalante as in STAND AND DELIVER (1988) at the end, suggesting his embarking upon a new career path. My final wish would have been for Lalo Rios to enjoy a longer career in cinema, bringing the Latino experience to the fore in all its dimensions.

early anti-racism indie

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 19 September 2022]

Vidal Cantanios struggles to find honorable work in East Los Angeles. He's been laid off by the Anglo boss. Rebellious son Tomas 'Tommy' Cantanios gets into a street fight with a couple of racists and gets picked up by boxing promoter Pete Ganusa. He starts prize fighting despite his father's disapproval. Lucy Gomez (Rita Moreno) is his girlfriend.

It's an early film examining institutional racism with a boxing film. It's a little jarring to see overt racism against Mexicans done so plainly. The lead's acting is rather amateurish. He does act opposite future star Rita Moreno. This is one of her first non-dancing acting jobs in a non-racist role. Overall, this is an important indie for the themes of racism and lower class struggles. The lead's poor acting does hold this back. If only, they had somebody real.

Realistic and Well Acted

[angelsunchained · 9/10 · 14 December 2020]

Outstanding overlooked boxing film with an outstanding cast of B actors. Lalo Rios stands out and it seems his fictional boxing career mirrored his real life acting career, in that he showed alot of potential, but for some unexplained reason, never became successful. Filmed on location in early 1950s California in glorious black and white. Very realistic and unromantizied look at boxing and ethnic discrimination. Honestly, I think this film is better then Raging Bull.

the ring

[mossgrymk · 8/10 · 26 October 2022]

This film was presented on TCM during Hispanic Heritage month as a companion piece to "The Lawless". Both works deal with anti Mexican- American prejudice in California in the 50s and feature the work of one of the few non stereotyped Latinx actors in Hollywood at the time, Lalo Rios. And while "The Lawless" is the more famous and heralded of the two, with a bigger budget and a more artistically significant director, I preferred this unabashed B movie about a Los Angeles barrio kid trying to box his way out, with its low budget, crude immediacy, to Joseph Losey's more polished work that mostly focuses on the effect of racism on Anglo liberals.

Are there flaws? You betcha. As in most inexpensive, indie type movies the acting can be problematical. It is especially shocking to see Rita Moreno as a typical ingenue with a very limited emotional range. Obviously Kurt Neumann was not the director to see and extract her future talent. Rios is considerably better although he will never be confused with Robert Ryan in "The Set Up" or even Mickey Rooney in "Killer McCoy", for that matter, to take just two other 50s boxing flics. I also noticed a tendency, in Irving Shulman's screenplay from his novel, for the dialogue to be more stiff and declamatory when the Mexican American characters are speaking to each other than when the Anglos are conversing. Can't say I liked this tendency very much.

Making up for the above lapses, however, are well staged fight scenes as well as tense, powerful examples of discrimination directed by the white denizens of LA toward the brown skinned. The scene set in the Beverly Hills coffee/soda shop, for me at least, had much more of an impact than any number of riots and attempted lynchings, a-la "Lawless".

Bottom line: As is often the case in Tinseltown the B picture is mightier than the A. Give it a B plus.

Hidden Boxing Gem - The Ring

[arthur_tafero · 9/10 · 14 November 2023]

I have to agree with fellow critic, non_sportcardandy that this film is a Classic B film. It is really a hidden gem. A bonus in the film is the appearance of a young (and raw) Rito Moreno, who would go on to stardom about ten years later in West Side Story. Even Jack Elam and his evil eye are in this one!

So, you want to be a boxer, eh? The sweet science is a shortcut to riches and fame, eh? Well, don't bet on it. The film depicts racist behavior toward Mexicans in Los Angeles in the 1950s (and still exists in Southern California and the Southwest). The racism issue, however, takes a backseat to the sleazy business of boxing; how it chews up and spits out youthful hopefuls who think they have a chance to be "somebody" (apologies to Marlon Brando). 99%+ of the hopefuls wind up getting concussions, brain damage, disfiguration ,eye problems, ear problems, and a litany of other medical problems. Boxing is not a glorious sport (kickboxing and WWF is even worse). And this film shows us in lurid detail why. The only film that exceeds the emotional impact of this film about boxing is Requiem for a Heavyweight. I'll take these two, and you can keep the Rocky baloney.