“There is no such thing”, my friend Alan K. Rode pointed out to me, “as a bad Robert Ryan performance…”

As a culmination of a week that celebrated the versatile Robert Ryan‘s contributions to film, this evening at 7:30 PM the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theater in Los Angeles will host an event with the perceptive author and film historian Alan K. Rode, featuring two of Ryan‘s best films, The Set-Up (1949-Robert Wise) and The Naked Spur (1953-Anthony Mann). Alan will be joined on stage for a discussion of these films and the career of this leading character actor by Lisa Ryan, the actor’s delightfully articulate daughter, and the legendary actress, Marsha Hunt, a friend of Ryan‘s who shared his artistic concerns as well as many of his sincere hopes for the future of society. Please click here for more details about tonight’s program and tickets.

The classic film noir story of The Set-Up takes place in the ironically named Paradise City, where, in only 72 minutes in real time, we witness the fall of a tank town boxer “Stoker Thompson” (Robert Ryan). The film establishes a black and white nightmarish quality from the first dank shot of this seedy place, as we first meet Stoker tossing and turning in a restless, troubled sleep in the fleabag Hotel Cozy(!), watched over by his tense wife (Audrey Totter). After awakening with a start, he immediately begins to prepare mentally for that night’s boxing match. Playing this role for the 6’ 4”, athletic Ryan, whose boxing career at Dartmouth College was undefeated, may have come naturally, but in this film, his character exudes the exhausted air of a perennial loser.

Just as Ryan brought a blistering realism to his demanding dramatic parts in Crossfire (1947-Edward Dmytryk) and Act of Violence (1948-Fred Zinnemann), he infused this beaten character with a noble exhaustion that can be seen on screen and felt in the doomed character’s every gesture. Psyching himself up for that night’s bout, Stoker urges his wife to attend the match. His wife, however, explains with quiet intensity that she will not be attending that night’s bloodletting. “Maybe you can go on taking beatings, but I can’t.” From this scene onward we accompany the dogged character on his private struggle against great odds, which include a fight with time itself as well as unscrupulous managers, trainers and local thugs. The Set-Up, filmed by Milton Krasner on a relatively small budget under the direction of Robert Wise may just be, as Alan K. Rode points out, one of a handful of truly great films made about boxing… perhaps the best of all time. Ryan’s Stoker Thompson is a memorably tragic and heroic protagonist. It is arguably Ryan’s finest performance that is a seminal film noir. My view is that I couldn’t host a tribute to Robert Ryan without it.”

For the most part, Alan, who is is a founding director of The Film Noir Foundation and the author of Charles McGraw: Biography of a Film Noir Tough Guy, “believe[s] that the influence of direction on Ryan’s work was minimal; however two of his best roles in The Set Up (1949) and Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) were directed by the great Robert Wise.”

Steve-o of Film Noir of the Week added that he felt that Ryan also shone under Wise‘s direction. Steve had particularly fondness for what he describes as “perhaps the last film noir from the classic period. [Ryan's] paired with Harry Belafonte in Odds Against Tomorrow (1959). Sure it’s a message film but man it’s something else. Belafonte and Ryan are explosive – literally. Unlike the heavy-handed No Way Out (1950-Joseph Mankiewicz) with a similar race message, Odds Against Tomorrow is a timeless, tough and gritty movie thanks to two powerful actors banging heads. Ryan – a liberal minded man known as a supporter of civil rights in his personal life – plays a venomous bigot and never gives fellow thief Belafonte an inch.” As Steve believes, Odds Against Tomorrow (with Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil) ended the classic noir period with satisfying down beats.”

As Lisa Ryan, Robert Ryan’s daughter recalls, her father’s co-conspirator and antagonist on screen in Odds Against Tomorrow, actor, singer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte (seen at left with her father on the set of that film) became one of her father’s best friends off screen. She also recalled that “I do remember my Dad talking about how much he liked working with Robert Wise (The Set-Up was my dad’s absolute favorite of all the films he was in) and when I finally met Wise I could understand why … he was incredibly warm and gracious, obviously a sensitive, caring man, with no huge ego evident.”

“As a co-star [in The Set-Up]“, Alan mentioned, “it had to be Audrey Totter in The Set-Up. You believed that they were married in that picture. Audrey told me that ‘Bob was a living doll’ and that the movie was her favorite.” Totter‘s remark about Ryan remind me that, unlike his more typical, highly cynical film noir roles, Ryan plays a man who, while capable of highly efficient bouts of violence, is also a gentle, almost idealistic character in The Set-Up. As Alan mentioned when describing Ryan‘s power on screen, “I think Ryan was similar to Spencer Tracy in that neither one of them ever got caught acting. Ryan expressed angst and rage as authentically as anyone. One critic referred to him as ‘infernally taut’”, a quality that is quietly but persistently building throughout this movie.

Other film noir authors share Alan‘s respect for Ryan‘s work in this role. Steve-o of Film Noir of the Week, believes that “The Set-Up was Ryan‘s best role. Ryan was a boxer back in his youth and he looks the part more than most 40′s actors.” Steve qualified his evaluation of the actor in this role by mentioning that “I find that he’s good in the role but it ultimately isn’t that much of a challenge for him.” Karen Burroughs Hannsberry, the author of Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir and Femme Noir: Bad Girls of Film and the editor of The Dark Pages, a film noir journal, would choose this movie as her “favorite Robert Ryan performance, without question.” Explaining that she found “Stoker Thompson in The Set-Up… an aging, over-the-hill boxer who has one good bout left,…a revelation”.

“Everything about Ryan’s portrayal fascinates me – from the lumbering way he moves, to his never-say-die attitude, to his touching reliance on his long-suffering wife. Ryan imbues Stoker with a wide range of character traits: he is world-weary but determined, wise and caring, frustrated, hopeful, encouraging, and a little sad. He does a great deal of acting without saying a word – with just a hint of a smile or a look in his eyes, he can say more than a page of dialogue.

From the opening scene, you are solidly behind Stoker – you want his wife to show up to give him the support he craves, you root for him to defy his shady manager, you cheer for every shot he lands and cringe for every blow he takes.”

When asked why he chose the western The Naked Spur to be part of this celebration at the Egyptian in LA, Alan, as the programmer for this evening’s American Cinematheque program, said that“The Naked Spur is one of the best of the James Stewart-Anthony Mann hard-bitten westerns of the 1950’s due in no small measure to Robert Ryan’s performance. Ryan disliked being typecast as a heavy, but let’s face it, he was terrific at it! As Ben Vandergroat, he transcended mere villainy into a diabolical charm that causes you to smile and shake your head at his conniving… until matters eventually take a darker turn. A tour de force of ensemble acting in the great outdoors, The Naked Spur is a singular movie.” While the gist of this blog has focused largely on The Set-Up, I find the Anthony Mann western, featuring James Stewart and Janet Leigh in the leads with Ryan, Ralph Meeker and Millard Mitchell in the supporting cast to be among the more atypical and positively jaunty if duplicitous fellows among Robert Ryan‘s many villainous portraits. As Karen Burroughs Hannsberry pointed out this kind of versatility displayed in “varied roles – the hateful, cynical Earl Pfeiffer in Clash by Night; sadistic Smith Orlig in Caught; murderous Montgomery in Crossfire, pitiful psychopathic Howard Wilton in Beware, My Lovely; determinedly vengeful Joe Parkson in Act of Violence; hard-nosed crime boss Nick Scanlon in The Racket. He never seemed, like some stars, to be playing himself but, instead, he inhabited his characters, creating a new and unique persona with each performance.”

Reflecting on their individual reactions to this actor, Lisa, Alan, Steve and Karen seemed to have diverse reasons for their feelings about Robert Ryan‘s career. Steve pointed out that “Ryan plays very unlikable people. Yet by the end of…films [such as Steve's favorites Act of Violence and On Dangerous Ground] you want so much for his character to be happy. Not rich… not successful. Just happy.” Alan adds that “Whenever I watch Moby Dick (1956-John Huston) with Gregory Peck, I always think how much better the movie would have been with Robert Ryan playing Captain Ahab. No knock on Peck, but Ryan would have been perfect for that role.” Btw, Lisa Ryan mentioned that her father “used to grumble about Gregory Peck a lot! “Greg” Peck always got parts my Dad would have loved to play … especially Ahab (my Dad was a Melville fanatic, and made a point of reading Moby Dick every couple of years ) … he also would have loved to have played Atticus Finch (and maybe gotten that Best Actor award too!)”.

The affinity of the actor for Herman Melville’s work was in evidence in one of the highest artistic peaks of Ryan‘s dramatic career on film, in his 1962 performance as Billy Budd‘s nemesis Claggart in Peter Ustinov’s fine adaptation of the Melville novella to the screen. His performance in that story, discussed here, as well as his work in his final performance in Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh (1973-John Frankenheimer), lovingly reviewed here by Keelsetter, should have garnered the actor the critical and industry recognition they deserved. Since neither were financial successes in their day, the latter day appreciation among Ryan‘s admirers for these movies underlines the intrinsic power of these movies and his performances over time.

According to Rode, he “believe[s] that Ryan’s reputation has grown over time. He was such a damn good actor, that I think he was, to a certain extent, taken for granted during his career. When you watch his film performances today, he is so compelling, convincing.

When Lisa Ryan reflected on her father’s career, she mentioned “a truly excruciating experience some years back. I was invited to be the special guest at a screening of Crossfire at a prominent San Francisco synagogue. It was part of an “Anti-Semitism In The Movies” series. I had to sit through the whole thing, scrunching down lower and lower in my seat, sort of trying to disappear, and then get up in front of the alarmingly large audience, feeling that I had to explain to everyone: “Hey – the guy was just acting!”

“I don’t think he actively sought out those roles, he just happened to be really good at them, for whatever reason, and then sort of got typecast. I know he would have loved to have had the chance to play more good guys, more noble characters, maybe even a romantic lead (which I guess he got to do early on in his career a few times) but he didn’t get that opportunity too often… but those roles weren’t in the cards for him. I think the parts he played have turne

d out, from the perspective of 2008, to be a lot more interesting than the parts he wanted back in the 1950′s. His characters seem to “wear well” … they don’t seem dated to me. I just wish he’d lived long enough to enjoy some of the recognition he’s getting now.”

Alan Rode mentioned that “As I’ve become acquainted with people who knew Ryan, what impresses me is what a quality human being he was. Not perfect, but someone who really stood up for what he believed in and did something about it, not just giving lip service. Robert Ryan was an admirable man.”