With a screenplay adapted by Leonard Gardner from his own novel, John Huston's drama examines the meager hopes and resigned dreams of small-time boxers. In limbo between retirement and his youthful prime, alcoholic farm laborer Tully (Stacy Keach) shacks up with fellow outcast Oma (Susan Tyrrell) and keeps trying to make a boxing comeback, but his personal demons repeatedly overpower his ambitions. Meanwhile, fellow Stockton, CA resident and budding fighter Ernie (Jeff Bridges) takes Tully's advice to join trainer Ruben (Nicholas Colasanto)'s gym and make something of himself. Learning the tough lesson that winning is not as easy as it sounds, Ernie is still determined to get what he can out of boxing and, unlike Tully, not let disappointments get the best of him.
As a record of the earliest years of Domino's career, this 30-track CD couldn't be more thorough, presenting the A- and B-sides of his first 14 singles in chronological order (a couple of 1957 LP cuts, "The Fat Man's Hop" and "Hey! Fat Man," are added at the end). Domino's debut single, "The Fat Man," and perhaps "Goin' Home" (which actually got to number 30 in the pop charts in 1952) are the only songs from this period that are reasonably well known to all but the devoted rock & roll/R&B collector. Actually, a few of the other cuts were sizable R&B hits, like "Every Night About This Time," "How Long," and "Poor Poor Me." But it's safe to say that even the average Fats Domino fan will be unfamiliar with the bulk of this collection.