The timekeeper is Weegee, btw.
This week’s mystery movie was the 1949 RKO picture The Set-Up, with Robert Ryan, Audrey Totter, George Tobias, Alan Baxter, Wallace Ford, Percy Helton, Hal Fieberling, Darryl Hickman, Kenny O’Morrison, James Edwards, David Clarke, Phillip Pine and Edwin Max.
Screenplay by Art Cohn.
From a poem by Joseph Moncure March.
Photographed by Milton Krasner.
Art direction by Albert S. D’Agostino and Jack Okey.
Musical direction by C. Bakaleinikoff.
Fight sequences by John Indrisano.
Set decorations by Darrell Silvera and James Altwies.
Edited by Roland Gross.
Sound by Phil Brigandi and Clem Portman.
Assistant director Edward Killy.
Makeup by Gordon Bau.
Produced by Richard Goldstone.
Directed by Robert Wise.
Further information on The Set-Up is available from the AFI Catalog.
The Set-Up is available on DVD from Critics’ Choice Video.
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I picked The Set-Up by going through the trades and was intrigued by the idea of a movie based on a poem, in this instance Joseph Moncure March’s The Set-Up (1928). I’m not a huge fan of fight films, but The Set-Up strikes me as one of the best around. The casting is perfect, the photography is fluid and expressive (especially the few shots of Downtown Los Angeles) and it’s a tight film, taking place in real time.
I’m going to guess that Bosley Crowther complained about how earthy it is… (It’s a boxing picture, what do you expect?)
Aha! Assigned to one of the “alphabet critics,” T.M.P., probably Thomas M. Pryor (The New York Times, March 30, 1949):
The fight game can number its Stoker Thompsons by the dozens and practically any big city you care to name has its own counterpart of the Paradise Arena. The spectators are much of a kind too: noisy, bloodthirsty men and women who check their inhibitions at the gate and for a couple of hours indulge their brutal cravings. The human animal has not changed much from the days of the Roman arena. The squared ring is an area where blood is expected to be spilled and when it is not the crowd yells its displeasure.
There is, we hear, a sporting as well as a seamy side to prizefighting. It is with the ugly aspects that The Set-Up is concerned. This RKO production, which opened yesterday at the Criterion, is a sizzling melodrama. The men who made it have nothing good to say about the sordid phase of the business under examination and their roving, revealing camera paints an even blacker picture of the type of fight fan who revels in sheer brutality. The sweaty, stale-smoke atmosphere of an ill-ventilated smalltime arena and the ringside types who work themselves into a savage frenzy have been put on the screen in harsh, realistic terms…. The Set-Up is a real dilly for those who go for muscular entertainment.
For Monday, we have two mystery guests.
Update: This is Jack Chase, left, and James Edwards.
For “Tricky Tuesday,” we have a mysterious guest who has a taste for literature.
Update: This is Wallace Ford.
Brain Trust roll call: Howard Mandelbaum (mystery movie and Monday’s mystery guests), Rick (mystery movie and Monday’s mysterious guest No. 2), Mike Hawks (mystery movie and Monday’s mystery guest No. 2), Mary Mallory* (mystery movie and Monday’s mystery guests), Bob Hansen (Monday’s mysterious fellow No. 2), Matt Berger (mystery movie and Monday’s mysterious man No. 2), Michael Lott (mystery movie and Monday’s mystery guests) and Sheila (Monday’s mysterious fellow No. 2).
*Rescued from the spam folder.
For “Hm Wednesday,” we have two mysterious fellows.
Update: This is Hal (Fieberling) Baylor, left, and Edwin Max.
Brain Trust roll call: Mary Mallory (Tuesday’s mysterious literary devotee), Howard Mandelbaum (Tuesday’s mystery reader), Dan Nather (mystery movie, Monday’s mysterious man No. 2 and Tuesday’s mysterious lover of literature), Chrisbo (Tuesday’s mystery reader), Mike Hawks (Tuesday’s mysterious pulp magazine devotee), Sheila (mystery movie and Tuesday’s mysterious reader), L.C. (mystery movie and mysterious cast) and Anne Papineau (Tuesday’s mysterious reader).
Note to B.J. Merholz: I checked, but there’s nothing there?
For ”Aha Thursday,” we have two mysterious gents.
Update: This is George Tobias, left, and Percy Helton.
Brain Trust roll call: Mary Mallory (Wednesday’s mystery fellows), Howard Mandelbaum (Wednesday’s mystery gents), Mike Hawks (Wednesday’s mystery chaps), Dan Nather (Wednesday’s mystery guests) and Anne Papineau (mystery movie, Monday’s mysterious fellow No. 2 and Wednesday’s mystery guests).
To Dan, who got out the movie and watched it again, yes, it’s an excellent film.
For Friday, we have two mysterious tunnels.
Update: These are the Hill Street tunnels, the left one for the streetcars and the right for auto traffic.
And our mysterious leading man.
Update: This is Robert Ryan.
Plus our mysterious leading lady.
Update: This is Audrey Trotter.
Brain Trust roll call: Mary Mallory (Thursday’s mysterious guests), Anne Papineau (Thursday’s mystery guests), Chrisbo (mystery movie and Thursday’s mystery guests), Mike Hawks (Thursday’s mystery guests), Dan Nather (Thursday’s mystery guests), Howard Mandelbaum (Thursday’s mystery guests), Roget-L.A. (mystery movie and Thursday’s mystery guests), and Greg (mystery movie).
ladailymirror.com 
Jack Chase and James Edwards in THE SET-UP.
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James Edwards The Set-Up
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James Edwards in THE SET-UP.
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THE SET UP. James Edwards on the right.
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THE SET UP. James Edwards on the right.
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Jack chase on left.
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James Edwards is the guy on the right. Don’t know the movie tho.
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Is that James Edwards (on the right) in THE SET-UP?
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The movie is “The Set Up” from 1949. The gentleman on the right is James Edwards. The man on the left was a real boxer… Jack Chase.
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James Edwards on the right?
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Wallace Ford.
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Wallace Ford.
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That’s Wallace Ford today, and I think this is THE SET-UP (1949).
For Monday, that’s James Edwards on the right — don’t know the other guy (yet).
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Is that Wallace Ford Tuesday??
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Spencer Tracy in “Fury?”
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Wallace Ford.
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Check your spam box.
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Wallace Ford, ‘The Set-Up’.
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The Set-Up (1949) w/Robert Ryan, Audrey Totter, James Edwards, Wallace Ford, George Tobias, Percy Helton, Darryl Hickman…
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Wallace Ford reading “Thrilling Love.” That’s as far as I can take it right now.
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Hal Baylor and Edwin Max.
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Hal Baylor, Edwin Max.
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Hal Baylor and Edwin Max.
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Had to watch the movie again to get these two: Hal Baylor and Edwin Max.
And once again, I am in awe. It’s just so real — EVERYBODY is so good in this movie (especially Robert Ryan), it just brings tears to my eyes.
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Our film is 1949’s “The Set Up,” on Monday, featuring James Edwards on the right.
Wednesday we see Hal Baylor and Edwin Max.
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George Tobias and Percy Helton.
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George Tobias and Percy Helton.
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George Tobias and Perc Helton in The Set-Up
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George Tobias and Percy Helton.
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George Tobias and Percy Helton for Thursday.
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George Tobias, Percy Helton.
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For “Aha Thursday”, George Tobias and Percy Helton in The Set-Up (1949)
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Now that Debby’s left town I can say that the movie is The Set-Up from 1949.
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The Hill Street Tunnel, Robert Ryan, and Audrey Totter. Ryan was a college boxing champion, so this role was so appropriate for him.
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The tunnels were on Hill Street in downtown Los Angeles. The photo shows the south portals of the first set, looking north from First Street. The second set were between Temple street and Sunset Boulevard. The privately built streetcar tunnels opened in 1909 and the parallel auto tunnels built by the city opened in 1913. They were demolished in 1955.
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Robert Ryan and Audrey Totter.
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Something happened; I nailed Jimmy and the Set-Up on Monday and it didn’t register.
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Let me know if this continues. Commenting is a problem, apparently!
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It’s happened before, but I put it down to my error, now I’m beginning to wonder. I will notify you if it happens again. It felt a little unfair, anyway, as I’ve watched The Set-Up many times since it was just about my favorite film in high school, and then I got know Edwards a few years later.
Come to think of it, did you do The Set-Up once before? I seem to remember a Mystery Photo of Alan Baxter in his white hat. Enjoy!
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OK let me know. And I keep notes of mystery movies to try to avoid repeats. Alan Baxter’s previous appearance was in The Last Gangster.
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Did he wear the same hat, light instead of dark? I always thought he should have been a leading man. He would never sport a newsboy cap.
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