City for Conquest

Danny Kenny drives a truck in New York. He is with Peggy, his friend from childhood, but she wants to dance and leaves him for the sake of a better life. Danny goes into the ring to earn money. With what he earns he supports his younger brother Eddie; Eddie wants to be a composer and is writing a symphony about New York. The centre of gravity of the film is not the love story but that exchange between two brothers. Danny takes fifteen rounds of punishment in a title fight and loses his sight; by the time his brother's symphony is played he can no longer see. Anatole Litvak directed. It is Arthur Kennedy's first film; Elia Kazan is here too, in one of the rare acting parts he took before becoming a director. James Wong Howe and Sol Polito shot it.