COMING SOON: I had the pleasure of chatting with @mrstevehunt.bsky.social, the Host of the Boxing Movie Podcast this past weekend about #99RiverStreet, and the episode will air later in August! #TheNoirCollective: be sure to follow him and listen www.stevehuntboxing.com/boxing-movie...

We're back at the boxing gym... Do boxers ever really leave the sweet science? #TheNoirCollective #99RiverStreet

I have always loved the use of Ernie's boxing match announcer audio overlaid with the flight with Victor visuals. Championship round and everything Ernie lost in the ring come down to one last fight at 99 River Street. #TheNoirCollective #99RiverStreet

And here we are coming full circle as Karlson & Planer brings us Ernie on "the ropes" again. Can he get up this time? #TheNoirCollective #99RiverStreet

Very interesting that we get Ernie's thought here as a narration. Would it have added more to the film if we had gotten more of this? #TheNoirCollective #99RiverStreet

You recognize Ric Roman here from other classic #filmnoir such as Kansas City Confidential and The Big Heat. #TheNoirCollective #99RiverStreet

Evelyn Keyes really shows her acting chops in this scene, and then, a little later, as she plans how to lure Victor and stall him. Such a different and less illustrative performance she gives from the theater...let's watch it unfold. #TheNoirCollective #99RiverStreet

In the 1930s and 1940s, "tomato" was popular slang for a highly attractive, curvy, or desirable woman. The term implied that the woman was "luscious" or "ripe". #TheNoirCollective #99RiverStreet

This scene, where Stan protects Ernie from the cops, perfectly illustrates the type of side-character that helps our #filmnoir protagonist escape or buy time. Characters and scenes like this are one of the core reasons I love noir. #TheNoirCollective #99RiverStreet

This scene always strikes me as Linda is just as tenacious and tough as Ernie. She also doesn't back down, and she believes in him. Ernie gives us a glimpse of how women treated him as a famous boxer, and then what happens when the fame goes away. #TheNoirCollective #99RiverStreet

Terrific scene with our two underworld characters. No yelling. Just cold, calm, collected. #TheNoirCollective #99RiverStreet

Ernie vs. Jack Lambert's thug might be the best fight in the picture. No ref, no ropes, no rules. Payne takes a beating early, then turns it around like he's back in the ring. This is where "ex-boxer" stops being backstory and becomes the plot. #TheNoirCollective #99RiverStreet

Linda wants to redeem herself. She quits the play and is ready to help right the wrong now that Ernie is once again down for the count. Do we trust her now? Here, Erie gives us a glimpse of his angry/boxer side, where he's ready to lash out and use those fists. #TheNoirCollective #99RiverStreet

Ernie needs to fight, but his eye injury isn't just a plot device: detached retinas and eye damage were career killers in the 50s, and state commissions would refuse to license fighters with bad eyes. One punch, no rematch, no appeal. Your boxing career is over. #TheNoirCollective #99RiverStreet

Nat Finley, played by Peter Leeds, is Ernie's former boxing manager. He's characterized as a good guy, and this characterization wasn't always the norm for a manager, as portrayed in The Set Up, The Harder They Fall, Requiem for a Heavyweight, Champion & more. #TheNoirCollective #99RiverStreet

Fighters know how to fight. And in most cases, not much else. When the going gets tough, the first thought is to go back to what you know, and so we're back at the gym. Ernie knows his eye injury could still prevent him from boxing, but he doesn't care. #TheNoirCollective #99RiverStreet

The boxer reverts to his instincts of fighting. We don't make excuses for it, but it's a familiar scene. Hollywood caught boxing fever too: Body and Soul, Champion, The Set-Up; all fighters chewed up. What happens AFTER the ring spits you out? You drive a cab. #TheNoirCollective #99RiverStreet

Ernie isn't excited about being a part of the audition, and much like many Karlson characters and stories, he doesn't trust the higher-ups, the "suits," and doesn't want any part of this scheme. That anger is coming through with instincts that go back to the ring. #TheNoirCollective #99RiverStreet

"There are worse things than murder. You can kill someone an inch at a time." Screenplay by Robert Smith, but John Payne and director Karlson both reworked the script uncredited, sharpening it into the lean, mean 83 minutes we're watching. #TheNoirCollective #99RiverStreet

We're about to see a very pivotal scene. Evelyn really pulls you in. I don't want to give too much away for anyone who hasn't seen the movie, but the twist regarding the scene is quite something, and we can discuss it on the flip side. Let's watch... #TheNoirCollective #99RiverStreet

The other side of Ernie, the boxer side, makes that empathy disappear a little. Who hurts Stan? This side of Ernie's character is the kind that defines #filmnoir. Are they good, bad, both? Morally ambiguous and complicated in a very realistic human way. #TheNoirCollective #99RiverStreet

Jack Lambert plays Mickey, thug and enforcer working for Christopher. He does a really chilling job as our resident heavy with a brutal fight scene later on. He's great in The Killers, where he gets to play Dum-Dum. He's also in The Enforcer and Kiss Me Deadly. #TheNoirCollective #99RiverStreet

Jay Adlar as the fence running a pet shop as his front. He plays the character with a quietly terrifying presence in the film. No shouting, businesslike, with a chill underneath. I love Adler in Cry Danger, The Big Combo, The Killing, and Sweet Smell of Success. #TheNoirCollective #99RiverStreet

A few #filmnoir must-haves as we're introduced to tonight's villain, Victor Rawlins (The Magnificent Seven), played to perfection by Brad Dexter. We have a flower shop (in so many noirs) and the gratuitous leg shot. Gotta feature those gams. #TheNoirCollective #99RiverStreet

Can we talk about Linda's hair? It was THE cut of '53; the "Italian cut" swept America off the poodle cut. Linda is a broke actress, but her hair is right on trend. Pauline gets the glamour waves; Linda gets the crop. Guess which one you can trust. (Or can you?) #TheNoirCollective #99RiverStreet

Evelyn Keyes is best known for Gone with the Wind. I love her in #filmnoir The Prowler and Johnny O'Clock. Tonight she's Linda James. The producer wanted Linda Darnell, but Keyes got the part and delivers one of noir's great curveball scenes. #IYKYK. Keep watching. #TheNoirCollective #99RiverStreet

The $5 Ernie spends on the box of candy would equate to $60 in 2025. On a cabbie's wages, that's a lot. #TheNoirCollective #99RiverStreet

Frank Faylen plays Stan, dispatcher pal to cabbie Ernie Driscoll. Sound familiar? Faylen was the movies' most famous cabbie; Ernie the taxi driver in It's a Wonderful Life. I love Frank here. He's the moral center and one of the few sincerely in Ernie's corner. #TheNoirCollective #99RiverStreet

We meet Ernie's wife, Pauline, played brilliantly by Peggie Castle. She also starred as the femme fatale in I, the Jury, Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer debut. Here she is (and reminiscent of Audrey Totter in The Set-Up), not happy with how life has turned out. #TheNoirCollective #99RiverStreet

John Payne, our battered hero, was once Hollywood's nicest guy; the lawyer who saved Santa in Miracle on 34th Street. By 1953, he'd reinvented himself as noir's favorite punching bag in #99RiverStreet, Kansas City Confidential, Larceny, The Crooked Way and more. #TheNoirCollective