Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Fantastic!

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

This is one of the very few occasions when a film seen in one's youth and revisited years afterwards more than stands up to the memory. Seen just today, close to 60 years after its initial release Robert Wise's bio-pic of middleweight champion Rocky Graziano is as fresh as paint. One minor bemusing point; I looked in vain in the credits for the name Lou Stillman. Most movie buffs are familiar with Stillman's gym in Manhattan where most boxers trained at one time or another; Stillman has a fairly substantial role in the middle section of the film, almost inevitably given that this section of the movie takes place largely in the gym. Stillman has several lines with both Newman and Pier Angeli yet zip on the credits. I have a strong feeling that Stillman played himself but it would be nice to have it confirmed. Newman was barely registering on the Hollywood map at the time though he was reasonably well known on Broadway. Warners brought him to Tinseltown and starred him in one of the all-time great stinkeroos, The Silver Chalice, and though he redressed the balance almost immediately with an outstanding performance in The Rack, no one went to see it. Monty Clift, who had boxed well in From Here To Eternity and would do so again in The Young Lions, was first choice for Graziano but wasn't interested so it was tailored for Jimmy Dean who ran out of breath before shooting could start, so Newman, who had played Hemingway's The Battler on TV, won the role by default and totally inhabited it. His stellar performance is only one of many on view beginning with Eileen Heckart as Mrs. Barbella (Graziano's real name), Harold J. Stone as the loser father and Everett Sloane as Graziano's trainer. One of the finest films from the tail end of Hollywood's Golden years.

Question: Is there such a thing as a boxing movie that isn't just a total cliché from start to finish? 'Cause if there is, then I'd sure like to know about it. I really would.With that said, you have my personal guarantee that 1956's Somebody Up There Likes Me is such a predictable cliché-of-a-boxing-movie that, at times, it's almost too painful to endure.On top of having this one major strike against it, this film also lost itself some significant points for its gross miscasting of Paul Newman in the lead role.Not only did Newman never, ever come anywhere near to being at all convincing as a full-blooded American/Italian, but his goofy performance as boxing champ, Rocky Graziano, was, by far, one of the most absurd and annoying examples of copy-catting Marlon Brando's quirky mannerisms that I've ever seen.Believe me, Newman's ridiculous portrayal was absolutely laughable to watch at times.Filmed in stark b&w, Somebody Up There Likes Me's story (which was set in NYC during the 1930s & 40s) was based on the autobiography written by real-life, middleweight, boxing champ, Rocky Graziano (whose birth-name was Rocco Barbella).Of all the many boxing films that I've seen over the years this dud has certainly proved to be one of the weakest and most unsatisfactory, by far.By the end of the movie I literally loathed Newman's Graziano character right to the very bone. My only wish was to see one of his opponents really clean his clock, but good. But, unfortunately, this never happened. So I was left totally unsatisfied.

"Somebody Up There Likes Me" is the second film Paul Newman starred as leading actor and the first to become a hit making him a great movie star. Here he plays the legendary boxer Rocky Graziano in his long and very difficult journey to be a recognized boxer. The movie begins showing his tough childhood in Bronx where he participated in robberies, and then went to prison because of his long list of crimes. After he went out of prison, he is drafted by the U.S. Army, but runs away. His luck seems to change when he discover that he can get fast money winning boxing fights. His first friend is Irving Cohen (Everett Sloane, the eternal Mr. Bernstein from "Citizen Kane"), who became his coach, arranging more and more fights to the young talented man. Just like Rocky Balboa who finds Adrienne, suddenly Graziano finds his first love, a young Jewish girl called Norma (Pier Angeli), who like him very much but can't stand his boxing.But the biggest challenge to Rocky isn't in the fighting but it's something more deep. A guy (Robert Loggia) that he met in prison reappears and then makes an offer to the boxer: he must lose a important fight. Why? Because his past on robbery and in the Army may be revealed to the public that really likes this guy. Rocky's always battling with himself trying to understand why bad things happens to him over and over again. OK, you might find the plot very obvious, something that you've seen before, but it has it's good moments and some originality. Newman's performance is a great asset to the film. He is conflicted, lost, sympathetic, angry and yet the audience always like him. Even that the boxing scenes doesn't work so well like in "Raging Bull" it's still worth watching the story of a man who's been beaten too much but don't give up so easily. Pier Angeli, Everett Sloane, Sal Mineo (Rocky's friend), Eileen Heckart and Robert Loggia (in his film debut) are very good in strong supporting roles. Pay attention to Steve McQueen participation as Fidel, one of the members of the gang in the beginning of the movie. Well directed by Robert Wise. 10/10

Director Robert Wise's second movie about boxing, "Somebody Up There Likes Me" is just as gritty as his earlier movie "The Set Up" with Robert Ryan. "Somebody Up There Likes Me" is a biography of 'the hard knocks' life that real-life boxer Rocky Graziano rebounded from to become a media celebrity in the ring. Paul Newman steps outside of his usual easy going demeanor to play Rocky as a tough guy who got a lot of bad breaks, especially from his pugilist pop who socked him around as a kid, before things got better for him.Indeed, this MGM movie is a formulaic biography with all the right elements and some contrivances to boot, but Wise directs it well, particularly the boxing scenes, and he benefits from a strong cast, especially McQueen in a pre "Blob" role as a juvenile delinquent. Rocky really had a terrible upbringing and a mean-spirited dad (Harold J. Stone at his meanest), but he manages to hold on long enough to win in the end. He suffers through prison as well as a military court-martial with a dishonorable discharge. Gripping black & white photography gives this movie a memorable look and the skyline shots of New York with the bridges looming up in the distance over the tops of the tenements are evocative.Pier Angeli, Everett Sloane, Sal Mineo and Eileen Herckart round out a solid cast. There are is inevitable scene where Rocky has to refuse taking a dive. He winds up behind bars early on as a rebellious youth. Newman proves that he can be as good if not better than Marlon Brando here as he portrays a character who isn't the brightest bulb in the lighting system. Definitely worth watching.