john garfield be a fighter take over body and soul in this 1947 faustian drama about a man who become too heady with success and too greedy and eventually sign on with a crooked fight promoter . garfield be support here by lilli palmer and anne revere and hazel brook and william conrad and canada lee and lloyd gough . american filmmaker love box movie and and why not . it a one on one brutal action sport that have inherent in it good drama because of what be at stake for people who most likely come from nothing and use their fist on the street . body and soul be no different in this regard and but it one of the best of it kind . it also boast an unusual and exceptionally talented cast . the film be load with conflict for charlie davis ( garfield ) his mother ( revere ) doesn not want him to fight while he in love with peg ( palmer ) and want to marry her but be talk into delay it when he sign on with a new and corrupt promoter and robert ( gough ) . this will be the first of charlie concession and unfortunately not the last . he fight ben ( lee ) and but isn not tell that the man have a blood clot and he need to coast through only a few round . instead and he pulverize ben and cause far brain damage and and take him on a a trainer out of guilt . then he seduce by a money hungry babe name alice ( brook ) . and on and on and until robert bet against him and order him to take a dive in the championship fight he be wait for . ( with all the film do about take dive and anyone who bet on a fight be nuts . ) something about this movie maybe it the theme song and which be one of my favorite swept me away . it one of garfield most colorful performance and and the beautiful and classy palmer be a perfect juxtaposition not only to the streetwise charlie but the trashy alice . the truly transcendent role and performance be essay by canada lee and a wonderful actor who die too young and have too few opportunity in film . his performance a the volatile and ill ben be oscar worthy . like ben carter in crash dive and the fact that lee be black do not enter into the script at all and and he be treat a an equal . for all the rotten stereotype do in film at that time and there be a few script that defy it . lee be blackball and die and almost literally and of a broken heart in 1952 ( the same year that john garfield die ) and leave a legacy of five film and some wonderful stage work and include orson welles all black macbeth . he be 45. cast member garfield and lee and anne revere and lloyd gough and art smith and shimen ruskin and scriptwriter abraham polonsky and producer bob robert would all find themselves blacklist and and director rossen would be threaten but admit to be a communist and name name . magnificently photograph in black and white by james wong howe and with top direction by robert rossen and body and soul be an example of how wonderful film can be .