World in My Corner is a 1956 American film noir drama sports film directed by Jesse Hibbs and starring Audie Murphy, Barbara Rush and Jeff Morrow. The film was produced and distributed by Universal Pictures. It is one of the few non-Western films in which Murphy appeared.
Contents
Plot
Tommy Shea, a boxer from Jersey City, is sponsored by millionaire Robert Mallinson. He falls for Mallinson's daughter Dorothy, who wants freedom from her father's controlling ways and to pursue her writing career. In order to acquire enough money to begin his life with Dorothy, Tommy begins to work for crooked fight promoter Harry Cram. This causes conflict with his honest manager, Dave Bernstein. As his big fight approaches, Tommy is torn about what he should do.
Cast
Audie Murphy as Tommy Shea
Barbara Rush as Dorothy Mallinson
Jeff Morrow as Robert T. Mallinson
John McIntire as Dave Bernstein
Tommy Rall as Ray Kacsmerek
Howard St. John as Harry Cram
Chico Vejar as Al Carelli
Steve Ellis as TV announcer
Art Aragon as fighter
Dani Crayne as Doris
Jimmy Lennon as Ring Announcer (as James F. Lennon)
Cisco Andrade as Parker
Harold 'Tommy' Hart as Stretch Caplow (as H. Tommy Hart, also acted as the film's technical adviser)
Sheila Bromley as Mrs. Mallinson
Production
The film was Murphy's first following the tremendous box-office success of To Hell and Back (1955), a film with the same producer and director as for World in My Corner. Murphy fights with several real-life boxers on screen, including Chico Vejar, Art Aragon and Cisco Andrade. Andrade later praised Murphy as being "the first actor I ever saw who wasn't afraid of getting hit hard in a prize fight scene."
Reception
In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Milton Esterow wrote: "The prizefighters on the Palace screen are getting thinner. The Palace ring dramas aren't putting on any weight, either. The theatre's last fight film was about a middleweight (160 pounds). Yesterday's offering, 'World in My Corner," concerns a welterweight (147 pounds). ... Universal-International keeps the leather flying with the aid of a gent named Chico Vejar, who has been in the ring for real. But please, U-I, hang up the gloves and toss in the towel for a while. We're getting a little punchy."
According to Murphy's biographer, the film "didn't do anything at the box office".