Movie Review: Diggstown (1992)
Synopsis: After being released from prison, conman Gabriel Caine and his partner, Fitz, travel to Diggstown, a town named after is most famous resident, boxer Charles Malcum Diggs. The town is run by Diggs' former manager, Charles Gillon, who secretly drugged his fighter to fix a fight and scam the residents out of their property, leaving Diggs in a vegetable-like state.
Caine gets Gillon to accept a wager, any 10 county residents versus 48-year-old retired boxer 'Honey' Roy Palmer. At first, it is just about the money but soon turns personal.
Who's in it? The movie stars James Woods, Louis Gossett Jr., Oliver Platt, Heather Graham and Bruce Dern.
Review: I remember watching Diggstown when I was a teenager but really didn't remember a whole lot about the movie, including what it was about. So, when I came across the film again, I decided to add it to my library and wound up watching it this morning.
I would now classify the movie as a forgotten favorite.
The best way to describe this movie is it is a battle between two conmen. One of them, Caine (Woods) is mostly about the money but knows when to draw a line while the other, Gillon (Dern) doesn't have that moral compass.
As a result, while Palmer (Gossett) putting up against 10 random fighters in a 24-hour time period is intriguing in itself, the fact both conmen were doing their part to fix the fight in their favor just added to the drama. You never knew if a fighter would take a dive because Caine paid him off or if they would try to injure Palmer because Gillon either offered them more money or was holding something more sinister over their heads. This led to quite a few twists during the tournament, ranging from a ringer from Palmer's past to a last-second substitution with an unexpected result.
Gillon's unscrupulousness also meant Caine and company were in danger when they weren't inside the boxing arena, something that was made clear when one of his friends is murdered and Caine himself is assaulted by Gillon's goons. It raised a question about if Gillon would let the wager continue if he thought he was going to lose or if he would simply make his problem go away, especially since he had all the resources to do so.
The movie's ending did leave a little to be desired, mostly because it ends without tying up some of the loose ends. This includes if Gillon ever faced prosecution for both what he did to Diggs (Wilhelm von Homburg) and at least one murder or if Caine planned on giving the townspeople their property back.
I also thought the film dropped the ball a bit with Emily (Graham). It seemed as though she was supposed to have more of a role in this film than just being one of Caine's informants but got a surprisingly small amount of screentime and wasn't even around at the end. I would have liked to have seen her have more to do.
Final Opinion: It's an entertaining movie with a solid villain and a few unexpected twists that keep it from becoming predictable. While not perfect, it was still fun to watch.
My Grade: A
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Here are some reviews of other movies from 1993:
Movie Review: Tombstone (1993)
Movie Review: The Fugitive (1993)
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