On TCM 8/17/16-Great director Robert Wise creates a NOIR world in The Set-Up (1949) where Robert Ryan, the extraordinary actor of many diverse faces, plays an over-the-hill boxer who refuses to quit despite the pleading of his wife played brilliantly by Audrey Totter and stands up to gangsters who want him to take a dive. -We cheer for Ryan here and yet we hate him as mean bigots in both The Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) and Crossfire (1947).
Lawrence of Cinema 