Day of the Fight (1951)

Director:

Stanley Kubrick

Writer:

Robert Rein (narration script)

Release Date:

26 April 1951 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Short | Sport

Plot:

Based on Kubrick's pictorial for Look Magazine (January 18, 1949) entitled "Prizefighter," "Day Of The...

Plot Keywords:

Look Magazine | Boxing | Narration

Cast

Douglas Edwards	...	Narrator (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Vincent Cartier	...	Himself (Walter's twin brother) (uncredited)
Walter Cartier	...	Himself (uncredited)
Nat Fleischer	...	Himself (boxing historian) (uncredited)
Bobby James	...	Himself (Walter's opponent) (uncredited)
Stanley Kubrick	...	Himself (man at ringside with camera) (uncredited)
Alexander Singer	...	Himself (man at ringside with camera) (uncredited)
Judy Singer	...	Herself (female fan in crowd) (uncredited)

Directed by
Stanley Kubrick

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Robert Rein		narration script

Produced by
Stanley Kubrick	....	producer
Jay Bonafield	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Gerald Fried

Cinematography by
Stanley Kubrick
Alexander Singer		(uncredited)

Film Editing by
Julian Bergman
Stanley Kubrick		(uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Alexander Singer	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Sound Department
Stanley Kubrick	....	sound editor (uncredited)

Music Department
Gerald Fried	....	conductor

Distributors

• RKO Radio Pictures (USA) (theatrical)
• Raro Video (2006) (Italy) (DVD)

Runtime:

16 min | 13 min (TCM print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

West 12th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Trivia:

If you look closely, at times you can see Kubrick operating a film camera.

Quotes:

Narrator: It's a living. For some, not much of a living. There are six thousand men like these in America -- professional prizefighters. Only six hundred will make a living at all -- and of these only sixty will make a good living. One out of one hundred.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Raging Bull (1980)

One where Kubrick should have asked for a few more takes!

Unlike the earlier Day of the Fight in which one can see inklings of Stanley Kubrick's later achievements, this film is a minor piece of hackwork with little to be said in its favour. Indeed, the most telling feature is that Kubrick, who would later be known as an obsessive perfectionist, here displays indifference. Almost all documentaries are set up to some extent, but here it would have been clear to the slowest of the audience that the episode of the padre flying a mother and sick baby to a hospital was acted out specially for the film. The clumsiness is compounded by the narration, which goes out its way to inform us that the episode was spontaneous and shot as it happened. With a little more inventiveness, Kubrick could have made the sequence at least partially convincing. (This assumes that Kubrick was responsible for the commentary; perhaps he wasn't, and this was an early lesson for him on what producers can do if you don't insist on full control!)