A superbly executed, touching little film that is more of a suspenseful drama than noir. Events play out in real time as an aging boxer fights a bout, unaware that he's supposed to take a dive in the third round. There's not a false note in the entire picture.

The Set-Up has perhaps the most straightforward plot I have ever actually seen, but the execution makes it worth the watchn

The Set-Up is as fit and trim as a boxer should be, not just in terms of length, but in the world it creates in those 73 minutes. Everything that happens is either in preparation for a fight, the fight, or its aftermath, practically in real time. It's one of the better boxing fights I've seen on film too, it feels long and desperate, an aging athlete's last shot at glory (Robert Ryan is good in the role). Whether we're in the crowd, or in the boxers' locker room (which feels like the waiting room of a meat grinder), or on the streets of that town with long-suffering girlfriend Audrey Totter walking around and anxiously waiting out the clock, director Bob Wise is building that world as much as he can. Sound design also comes in, eschewing music for ambient sound - the roar of the crowd, traffic in the streets... And what do we think of that ending, and in particular the mixed feelings playing on Totter's face? The last of Wise's low-budget efforts for RKO, he certainly made it a good one.