John Huston's best film of the Seventies, this could easily have been called The Misfits, had the title not already been used so auspiciously by the same director 11 years earlier. The film's theme song, Help me Make It Through the Night, composed and sung by Kris Kristofferson, is immensely appropriate, as film is all about making it through the night - and day - getting a foothold on life, and coming to terms with failure. Stacy Keach and Jeff Bridges give career-best performances as two boxers in whom hope springs eternal, but leads, inevitably, to their continual disillusionment. And that much underrated and under-used actress Susan Tyrrell gives a haunting performance as the sad Oma, using a voice that sounds thoroughly soaked in a mixture of gin and tears. Conrad Hall's photography - which seems, in recollection, an attractive mix of shades of brown and blue - rightly emphasises the non-existent glamour of the lower reaches of the boxing profession.

©ipc tx. Film content from TVTimes