Smash Hit

David Curcio’s SMASH HIT: RACE, CRIME, AND CULTURE IN BOXING FILMS joins Armin Lear Press’ titles exploring the way key social issues surface in the arts.

Cinema emerged alongside the rules that ushered in boxing’s modern age and the “squared circle” proved the ideal stage for cinematic display. The public had its first taste of the new medium in 1894 through a heavyweight bout, recognized today as the world’s first feature film.

As the two attractions fast-grew into the country’s most popular entertainments, nascent Hollywood studios were quick to spot an opening for a surefire combo. Like a snap-jab to the teeth, the boxing film emerged as a popular genre wherein the fighter assumed his place among the private dicks, rebel cops, and desperate underdogs mired in America’s expanding urban landscape.

Devoting equal time to both mediums, SMASH HIT: RACE, CRIME, AND CULTURE IN BOXING FILMS uses twenty films as the basis of a hard-nosed exploration as to how the genre held a bloody mirror to twentieth century America’s most prominent social anxieties, elucidating two conjoined mediums that serve as bellwether to an ever-shifting cultural zeitgeist.

“David Curcio’s Smash Hit is a first-round knockout filled with strong writing and deep insight.”

-Bob Batchelor, author of Roadhouse Blues: Morrison, the Doors, and the Death Days of the Sixties and Stan Lee: A Life

"David Curcio's absorbing, fascinating book sent me down a rabbit hole of so many memorable movies....and Smash Hit belongs in the company of the best of them."

-Donald McRae, The Guardian

"Smash Hit is not about the sport of boxing so much as a view of American society in the context of boxing culture, film history, and Hollywood gossip. An entertaining, informative, lively read.”

-Glen Sharp, author of Punching in the Shadows