BoxRec

Several weeks ago in another thread...."Fighters as Actors"....I mentioned that former middleweight contender Walter Cartier had a regular roll in the "Sgt. Bilko" TV show of the late 1950`s.

Recently reading a biography of the famed film director Stanley Kubrick, I learned that Carter was the subject of his first attempt to make a film.

The 12-minute documentary was titled "Day of the Fight" and was made in 1951. Kubrick sold the film to RKO-Pathe for four thousand dollars, exectly one hundred dollars more than production costs.

The film deals with the close relationship between the boxer Cartier and his New Jersey attorney brother, Vincent, also his manager. With only voice-over, it documents Cartier`s day from the time he and his brother wake up until he scores a convincing knockout over his opponent.

The film was first shown on 26 April 1951 at New York`s Paramount Theatre in support of a Robert Mitchum pot-boiler, "My Forbidden Past".

After he retired from the ring, Cartier took up acting and appeared in Elia Kazan`s "A Face in the Crowd" as well as the "Bilko" series.

Kubrick, of course, went on to make a number of film classics, including
"A Clockwork Orange", "2001: A Space Odyssey", "Dr. Strangelove" and "Full Metal Jacket" among others.

Walter Cartier fought only a few times outside of New York and the east coast. His single appearance in Chicago was a 10-round decision over Joe Arthur at Marigold Gardens. He followed that up with a decision over Jimmy Sherrer in Milwaukee a couple of week later.

Source: "Stanley Kubrick, a Biography" by John Baxter. Published by Harper Collins Publishers, 1997. London.

Do you know if that film is available on video? Heard a lot about it. Kubrick started as a photographer for Look magazine. I wonder if he did any photo stories on boxing?
Also, does anyone remember a documentary from the mid '70s called "Good Night, Miss Ann."? Don't know who made the film, but it features a number of LA fighters of the period, especially Bobby Chacon.

Crooked Nose....Making "Day of the Fight" was Stanley Kubrick`s second professional encounter with middleweight Walter Cartier.

In late 1948, while on staff at Look Magazine, Kubrick was assigned to shoot a day in the life of a young boxer, the 24-year-old Cartier.
The result of their "day" together was a layout of seven pages and nineteen photographs. The story was titled "Prizefighter" and appeared in the 18 January 1949 edition of Look Magazine. More importantly it was the genesis of Kubrick`s venture into motion pictures.

I remember as a boy cutting out and saving the Look Magazine pictures of Walter Cartier. No doubt after he beat one of my heros, Joe Arthur, they were discarded.

I do not know if "Day of the Fight" is available on video and am not familiar with the other film but is sure sounds like a great double bill.