The Square Ring (1953)

Interesting facts

• Based on: The Square Ring

The Square Ring is a 1953 British tragi-comic drama, directed by Basil Dearden and made at Ealing Studios. It stars Jack Warner, Robert Beatty and Maxwell Reed. It was written by Robert Westerby, Peter Myers and Alec Grahame, based on a 1952 stage play by Ralph Peterson, and centres on one night at a seedy boxing venue and tells the disparate stories of the fighters and the women behind them.

Production

The play debuted in October 1952 and was immediately successful. Film rights were bought by Michael Balcon at Ealing. In November 1952 he announced John Mills would star, with Basil Dearden to direct and Michael Relph to produce. Relph later said he was reluctant to make the film as he felt box movies were bad box office.

Eventually Mills dropped out and was replaced by Canadian actor Robert Beatty. He had no boxing experience so he trained for two weeks with Dave Crowley in preparation for the role.

The play was all male but three women were added to the film. The women included Kay Kendall and Joan Collins, who were both under contract to Rank. Kendall had just made Genevieve but it had not been released. Collins appeared opposite then husband Maxwell Reed. Ronald Lewis repeated his stage performance.

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