User Reviews

In 1974 boxing is now only using androids as athletes with men outlawed from performing any longer. Steel (the great Lee Marvin), a former boxer, and his frustrated but loyal mechanic, Paul (Joe Mantell), have an outmoded model, B2, no longer considered much of a factor in the sport. Paul is totally skeptical that their "Battling Maxo" could even make it through the first minute of the first round, sounding off its modicum of problems, including a bum left arm, such as its need of springs and other parts no longer available. But Steel is undeterred, seeing that his android just needs some repairs that could come with this specific payday, in some sweaty, urban boxing arena, against a superior B7 model that is the pride of Maynard, Kansas. While I think it is indeed a TZ type episode considering it was set a few years into the future during which it was made and featured android boxing, I personally wasn't all that won over as others seem to be. It was a critical hit, but I have noticed a few TZ fans just didn't warm up to it like I didn't. I love Marvin in this, don't get me wrong, but it simply involved the sport's mentality towards winners and losers, and those who lose, often lose big. Marvin's character, I realize, comes off to many as brave and gutsy, but I found him rather stupid in his decision to put himself in such danger when it was clear he could endure severe internal damage, even death. Dying gets you nowhere, and I just found that rather clumsy in its logic. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and all that, so I guess he acted out of a need to get some quick cash, but ultimately he is worse for wear physically (there's no reason to doubt he doesn't die from the injuries he suffered) and half a payday left him with little surplus for his B2. Who's to say he doesn't have to use the money for hospital bills? The bus ride home will cost, and the mechanics needed for his android just simply no longer exist. So in no way was he going to come out of this any better than he went in. So that thinking left me rather disenchanted with this particular episode. I felt pity for Steel, especially considering he felt he had no other choice but to face off with an android boxer he had no chance against in the boxing ring, but there was no way out of the situation in one piece. The androids in how the move and act were impressive, and their eyes are unnerving. Marvin fans will want to see it just the same; he's quite good in it.

Steel is one of T Z's better episodes! Boxing is outlawed in 83 and the public has battle bots. Lee Marvin is a good actor and creates a gritty feel for the boxing battle bots. Steel creates empathy for the hard on their luck battle boters. With desperation one of the old boxers illegally goes out to fight one of the battle bots for money to repair battle bot! The man vs machine is a neat concept! Steel has an exciting ending. 7 out 10 stars. Worth watching.

To me, this episode is an enormous wastes of talent. After all, Lee Marvin was an exceptional actor and had a real presence about him. But here, he stars in a sub-standard episode--one that probably shouldn't have been made in the first place.

The episode is supposed to take place in the 1970s--a decade after boxing has been outlawed. In its place, people STILL watch boxing--but with robots instead of real people (an outlandish idea setting this in the very near future--not 2060 or the like). Marvin and his partner own a dilapidated boxing robot that should have been retired years earlier as it's clearly seen better days and technologically is obsolete (even though robot boxing is only a decade old at the most?!). The two are so down and out that Marvin can't concede that the robot is beyond repair and refuses to cancel the match. But, when the robot can't be salvaged, Marvin decides to pretend to be a robot and take on the brand-new boxing robot that should be able to beat the snot out of him--which is exactly what it does! There is no irony, no suspense--just Marvin getting the crap kicked out of him in this silly and impossible to believe (even for "The Twilight Zone"). Plus, despite Marvin's magnetic presence, this is one that is imminently worth skipping. Dull and ridiculous despite the good acting.

The "Twilight Zone" episodes viewed today, for the most part, are as entertaining - and seem as innovative - as when they were produced and first-aired more than four decades ago. This episode is certainly one of those.

Lee Marvin, an ex-boxer himself, now manages and owns an android pugilist in a time where the sport has been outlawed for human fighters for several years. With his mechanic/assistant, they arrive in a town for a bout with a newer-model opponent -about 5 models advanced over their antiquated one.

Upon finding a key part malfunctioning, Marvin personally substitutes, in order to collect the modest purse they so badly need.

The make-up for the two androids and Martin impersonating same is excellent, and the seedy arena, promoters and audience members appear authentic.

Like many offerings in film and television, outstanding ones from a long time past provide a repetition of the enjoyment they provided originally --- plus a significant viewer "bonus" in the added nostalgia for their genres, and for the actors no longer available, due to age or passing.

Again, "Twilight Zone" provides these in the vast majority of episodes today.

Lee Marvin plays Steel Kelly, a former fighter who now merely acts as the manager for a robot called "Battling Maxwell." In the not-so-distant future, boxing has been banned and robots have taken the place of humans. The boxing world, however, is still full of sleazy characters and Kelly and his partner/mechanic (Joe Mantell) barely make a living off their battered and out-dated robot, bouncing from one smoke-filled arena to another. Desperate for money, the two men travel to Kansas City for a bout. To their utter dismay, Battling Maxwell blows his main fuse and breaks down completely just before the match. What transpires next is classic "Twilight Zone." Brushing aside his partner's pleas, Kelly decides to step into the ring himself disguised as Maxwell. In the opposite corner of the ring is a state-of-the-art robot called the Maynard Flash. Although the chances of Kelly staying on his feet (or even staying alive) are nearly one-hundred to one, he attempts the impossible: man versus machine at its most one-sided. It's all about the enduring human spirit, according to narrator Serling, even though the ending to the story is hardly uplifting. The episode is helped by an unforgettable performance by Marvin as Kelly with Mantell giving him fine support. This episode was written by the prolific Richard Matheson who was one of Rod Serling's chief collaborators on the series. In the realm of Twilight Zone stories, "Steel" ranks with the best.

I must not be the only guy who thinks it's great, since there a movie, yet to be released as I write this review, entitled "Real Steel" involving... boxing robots. And this ain't your big brother's "Battlebots", either.

Lee Marvin is outstanding in this Zone half-hour, as the owner/manager of a creaky, washed-up robot fighter which is so out-of-date they can no longer get parts for it. Naturally, the robot boxer breaks down before the big bout, and Marvin takes the broken robot's place in the ring. But I won't disclose the ending here. You'll just have to watch for this episode.

Interestingly (to me anyway, as a student of Hollywood history) this episode, like the vast majority of Twilight Zones, was shot at what used to be one of the six MGM Studio lots in Culver City, CA. Now the last remaining lot is the Sony Pictures/Columbia Pictures lot. Anyway, Serling & company must have rented a Culver City bus for the very first shot of this episode (that's the uncut version only - the bulk of that shot is missing from the edited-for-time version that you most often see on TV these days). I reach this conclusion from the fact that in the "destination window" above the windshield of the bus, it says "Sunkist Park". Sunkist Park is in fact an actual Culver City neighborhood, just a few minutes from the studio by car, and was built eleven years before this 1963 episode was filmed.

If you haven't seen this episode, you've really missed something - not the least of which is Lee Marvin at his best. It would be well worth your while to keep an eye on the TV listings for it. And just for grins, if you're lucky enough to catch the uncut version during a Twilight Zone marathon, take a good look at that bus in the first shot as it turns the corner and pulls into frame.

While I feel like this episode isn't really one of Twilight Zone's best, Steel is still worth seeing due to its interpretation of how life in the 70s would look like, as well as featuring Lee Marvin as one of the main characters. The episode takes place in 1974, and explains that prizefighting has been banned since 1968. To compensate, Steel Kelly (Lee Marvin), a former boxer, has put together an android resembling a real person in order to fight in the ring for him. Unfortunately, the android (named Maxo) stops functioning before the fight is scheduled to start. Kelly finds out it's going to cost $500 to repair the robot, despite it being an older version that is mostly obsolete by this point anyway. In order to fix his android, Steel decides to do something drastic: he will dress up as his android to fight in the ring and bet that no one in the crowd during the boxing match will notice he's a real human. This is illegal, but he needs to do it to get the money. Upon entering the ring, Steel finds himself going up against a robot named Maynard Flash, who is a much newer model than Maxo. As expected, Steel gets the snot beat out of him, but it pays off (literally). He wins half the prize money, which will help him at least partially repair Maxo. While there isn't much to this episode, and it ends on a rather sad note, I still think it's good. It shows how Marvin's character (a former boxer who always won) encounters difficulties despite how strong he used to be. The robot in the ring clobbers him effortlessly, showing that human beings are no match for machines. The robots themselves are interesting because their faces were modeled after the faces of the actors. They sculpted them from clay after taking lifemasks from Marvin and the others. One thing I found really cool is how the emotionless black eyes the robots possess were actually painted ping pong balls with tiny holes made in the middle. It's a simple idea but it worked really well for this episode. One last thing I can say about Steel is how even though he knows there are better ways of getting the repair money, he chooses to let himself get beat up because it's the fastest and most readily available way. Despite only getting half of what is needed, Steel displays his bravery and takes a beating to show how determined he is to repair his android. For that, he deserves praise. In all, Steel is a pretty simple episode, but it shows how people sometimes act impulsively when they want something done quickly.

At times Rod Serling liked to take his stories into the not too distant future. One such was the fourth season episode, 'On Thursday We Leave For Home'. The setting for this one is 1974, only about a decade after it's original air date, and not too futuristic when you come right down to it. I'm wondering if Serling thought pro boxing would actually be banned at some point because of it's violent nature. How wrong he would have been. Even though the sport has lost it's luster over the past few decades, brutality in the ring has only escalated with the advent of extreme fighting and it's derivatives.

The best thing about this episode is Lee Marvin, but the story is somewhat of a letdown. I know it's supposed to pay tribute to Man's indomitable fighting spirit, but the execution was a failure. The set up had two technologically mismatched robot fighters about to square off when Battling Maxo popped a spring and lost his left arm. Steel Kelly (Marvin) as a substitute just wasn't going to work. The denouement uninterestingly offered Machine's victory over Man, with no twist, no hook, and no moral to the story. With nothing to learn here but the obvious, the story failed to deliver the way most Twilight Zones usually did.

There is nothing in this episode that qualifies as a "moment of revelation." In the near future, boxing (with real people) has been outlawed. The Lee Marvin and Joe Mantell characters try to enter their robot into a boxing match. The robot is obsolete and not capable of delivering a fight. Determined to win the $500, Steel (Marvin) decides to pose as the robot, and fight the match himself. Unless something in all of that can be interpreted as a revelation, then there is no revelation. At the end, Marvin seems to go a little wacky. Up to that point, his performance is one-note and kind of drab. Curious that Marvin's character was named "Steel." Sounds like a name more suited to the robot than his owner. Not the best episode.

Every single decision Marvin's character makes is illogical, dumb and makes no sense. If he is being so absurdly self-destructive then at least give the viewer an explanation why. (Getting mangled or killed for a few dollars doesn't cut it.) And yet, despite the pathetic ending that ends poorly for Marvin and his overacting buddy, Serling's outro narration tries to spin the pointless ending into some kind of a triumph of the spirit or some such exalted malarkey.

As if fighting a robot, going into a suicide mission for a few dollars - while cheating the public and breaking the law, can have any positive connotations. Marvin made a dumb choice and got pummeled - so what's remotely redeeming about that? It's the story of a dumb person. One of many.

Not to mention that a boxer who doesn't train for a fight would get pummeled by almost any professional human opponent, let alone a machine. (Clearly, Serling knows zero about boxing. To him, it's just about a crowd screaming "kill him!" over and over again.)

Furthermore, the plot has no plot-twist, the story simply petering away once Marvin decides to fight the robot: he decides to fight the robot, the robot pummels him, and that's it.

The dialog leading up to the fight is mostly dull anyway.

In hindsight, the fanciful notion (grounded in boundless Utopian optimism) that boxing might be outlawed in some "civilized" future is so wonderfully naive. The opposite had happened in the meantime, in this "progressive future": sex has never been more pornographic, and as far as violence, Ultimate Fighting makes heavyweight boxing look like kittens wrestling by comparison. But nobody could possibly have guessed that western civilization would be in an irreversible downward spiral just a few decades later. Back when TZ was being written and made, the western world was in an upward climb, seemed invincible, hence visions of the future were rosy. Of course, that's before Cultural Marxism existed, before the Frankfurt School started sucking up all progress. Before flakes of snow and before CNN.