Excellent, Without a doubt!!

A Masterpiece!

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Written and directed by Alfred Hitchcock (and adapted by his wife Alma Reville, uncredited), this silent boxing drama features a love triangle between two fighters, 'One-Round' Jack (Carl Brisson) and Australian champion Bob Corby (Ian Hunter, his fourth film), and Mabel (Lillian Hall Davis).Jack (Brisson) is a carnival fighter who takes all comers, so says the barker (Harry Terry), who promises if you can beat 'One-Round' Jack, you'll win a prize. Though he means money, Bob Corby (Hunter) is interested in the ticket seller Mabel (Hall-Davis), who just so happens to be Jack's fiancée. Corby, who's with his promoter James Ware (Forrester Harvey), is the Australian boxing champion, though he doesn't let this be known when he accepts the barker's offer.Naturally, Corby wins the bout with Jack in Round 4, upsetting Jack's trainer (Gordon Harker). However, after the fight, Ware offers Jack the opportunity to be Corby's training partner, which Jack and his trainer readily accept. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Jack, his fiancée Mabel has been kissing Corby. But, after Jack wins a tuneup fight to earn the right to be Corby's training partner, he and Mabel are married. The charming playboy Corby, who's in attendance, doesn't seem to mind.Their marriage is a sham, though, with Mabel spending all her time in the company of the champ Corby. After preventing a scene, a premature fight, in a restaurant between his two fighters, Ware promises Jack the opportunity to fight for his wife, provided he can climb the rankings and earn a title fight with Corby.So, in typical boxing film fashion, Jack's name moves up the boxing card until he finally wins the bout which secures his shot at Corby. When he returns home to celebrate with his old friends, including the barker and his trainer, Jack is surprised (for some reason) that Mabel isn't there to congratulate him. Eventually, while they all wait for her return, Jack's friends leave. When Mabel finally does return, the couple finally has a falling out, with Mabel leaving Jack to stay with friends.The bout between Jack and Corby dominates the film's final scenes. Naturally, Mabel is there to watch. The fight goes several rounds and it appears as if Jack is down and out. However, Mabel rushes to his corner between rounds and tells her husband that she's on his side. This, of course, inspires Jack to beat Corby and win the fight. After the bout is over though, Mabel and Corby exchange a knowing wink.There are some scenes which would be deemed racist today: the ridiculing of a black man at the carnival's dunking booth and even the use of the n-word on one placard. The film's title is a 'triple' entendre, referring to the boxing ring, the wedding ring, and a golden bracelet given by Corby to Mabel.

. . . or jewelry designed to resemble the slithering reptiles, such as the near-fatal bracelet worn by Lilian Hall Davis as "Mabel" in this steamy love triangle Silent Pic. I've watched THE RING twice, and Mabel seemed more sinister the second time around. No one wants to believe that a blonde can be born bad; it's much easier to just echo Adam's mate, Eve, and blame it on the snake. THE RING's boxing hero protagonist, Jack, is faced at every turn by the epitome of Evil, pugilist Bob, Mabel's seducer. From the moment Bob insinuates the snake bracelet onto her wrist, viewers have the feeling that this story will not have a happy ending. THE RING represents director Alfred Hitchcock at his best, before he got all Fancy Schmancy with red filters on a later version of a Femme Fatale, MARNIE. Lil Mainwaring, who played Sean Connery's would-be lover in that film, says that Hitchcock literally fingered her face to achieve the exact expression he wanted her to have when she looked out the window of her "adopted" mansion at Sean and Marnie (Tippi Hedren). Hitchcock, who started in the film business writing title cards, always wanted to manipulate his actresses to the maximum extent possible, and it was a big help to reduce Ms. Davis' utterances as "Mabel" here to title cards, rather than having to deal with her vocal inflections, had this film been a "talkie."

I really wanted to like this one, even watching it twice in the past week, thinking that it might grow on me (as Hitchcock's Number Seventeen has done, slightly) but it just doesn't do anything for me. Apparently, it didn't do much for the audiences in 1927 either, because from what I've been able to find out about it, despite being popular with critics, it sank at the box office. Hitchcock not only directed but also wrote this boring melodrama, a combination of two of my least favourite genres: boxing, and romance. The world of boxing provides the backdrop for this formulaic triangle between two competitors and the girl who loves them both: but which man does she really want to marry? The title is good, with several layered meanings in relation to the story. The fact that the film used few title cards was unique, letting visuals tell the story by themselves. There are a lot of clever visuals by Hitchcock: as we look up through the water of a pond at the two lovers; placing the ring on her finger at the marriage ceremony, only to have the bracelet slip down to her wrist, reminding her (and the audience) of the other man; girl, sitting on hubby's lap, glances across the room toward a mirror, and sees reflection of the "other man"; fingers flittering away on the ivories, distorted - but the plot, again written by Hitchcock himself, was a routine melodrama which could hardly hold my attention.Beautiful, slightly Gothic looking church in which the ceremony occurs is an asset to the film in its few, brief scenes. Goofball comically blowing the suds off the beer, then downing it, and the film's subsequent distorted Point-Of-View shot is an amusing moment. Was this film, released October 1927, the first to use POV shots?

Ian Hunter was later to be King Richard the Lionheart in Errol Flynn's "The Adventures of Robin Hood." Here, he's the heavyweight champion. Just for the heck of it, and because he was taunted by the girl (Hall Davis) who takes tickets, he gets into the ring with "One Round" Jack (Brisson), a carnival nobody who makes a meager living fighting all comers. The ticket-taking young lady is Brisson's girl friend.Hunter decks Brisson, as is expected, but the bout forms a certain bond between them. Hunter's win also attracts the attention of Hall Davis. Gee, a genuine champion! Hunter slips her a bracelet bought with his winnings from the bout.Brisson then finds a manager and begins professional boxing. He marries Hall Davis in a comic scene. Hitchcock handles the scene with some deftness. An insert shows us Brisson's hand slipping the wedding ring onto Hall Davis's finger, but the bracelet from Hunter slides down her arm and confuses the simple event.Brisson works his way up to the top and finally wins the match that will get him a title shot against Hunter. He returns home to find his pals ready to celebrate with him -- but no wife. She's out schtupping Hunter. The champagne goes flat while everyone waits for her return. One by one, the Brisson's glum buddies take their leave. Brisson has by the time caught on to the situation. When Hall Davis finally returns there is an angry exchange and Hall Davis leaves him, feeling insulted.The night of the big fight arrives and it's exhausting. Brisson takes a pounding from Hunter. Just when it seems he can't get through another round, guess what happens. Hall Davis arrives, changes her mind, and rushes to Brisson to tell him, "I'm in YOUR corner, Jack!" That signal Hunter's KO. Happy ending.It's a bit slow and torpid at the start but after twenty minutes or so, I found myself caring what happened to the characters. They're pretty well written. Hunter isn't an evil guy, just careless about the feelings of others and used to having any girl he has a yen for. Brisson is the obvious and oblivious protagonist, good natured, committed, naive. Hall Davis is flighty and adulterous but turns out all right in the end.Hitchcock plays some tricks with the camera and seems to enjoy experimenting with the device. We see the world hazy and shimmering through the eyes of a drunken man. It's even worse when we get the POV of Brisson after he's been skinned alive in the ring. One of the camera's capers is unusual. At the bottom of the screen a man's hands are playing the keys of a piano, but the keys extend blurrily all the way up to the top of the screen.It's not a great movie. Love triangles are common and the end is formulaic. Nor is the acting outstanding. I'm not sure what would constitute an outstanding performance in a silent movie, disregarding makeup.You'll probably stay awake through it, but it's not worth repeated viewings.