the audience applauded

brilliant actors, brilliant editing

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Paul Newman spent his first five years of acting in episodes of various TV series – none of which were noteworthy. His first big screen role was in "The Silver Chalice," a 1954 film that bombed at the box office. Interestingly, Newman won the Golden Globe award that year as the most promising male newcomer. The next year in his life was spent back in the TV dramas. Then came a break with his role as Rocky Graziano (nee, Thomas Rocco Barbella) in this 1956 biopic. The movie is based on Graziano's autobiography by the same title, "Somebody Up There Likes Me." Newman gives a superb performance. I agree with a couple of other reviewers, that this is one of the best boxing movies ever made. Newman showed his acting talents in playing the complex character of the troubled Barbella, growing up during the depression years in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. He nailed the accent perfectly. The movie was a smash hit, and all the cast did superbly well in their roles. Pier Angeli played his wife, Norma Unger, daughter of Jewish German immigrants. Eileen Heckart played his mother and Harold Stone played Nick, his dad. Other notable roles were Everett Soane as his trainer, Irving Cohen; and Sal Mineo as a friend from the streets, Romolo. The fight scenes seem realistic. The film, like the book, pulls no punches (what better pun considering the subject?) in portraying Rocky's rocky (oops, another natural, no?) background. The supporting cast all are very good. I don't know how much Graziano gave to this in his book, but it would have been nice to see a little more with Army Sgt. John Hyland at Leavenworth military prison. Rocky actually spent nine months there and was dishonorably discharged from the Army for going AWOL after he punched and knocked out a captain. In the movie, Hyland took Rocky under wing to condition him for a fighting career when he got out. But nothing is shown of this. During Rocky's 1947 World Middleweight title fight toward the end of the film, the camera switches to scenes of family and other folks listening in on the radio. In a few scenes, the camera shows Hyland in civilian clothing listening in a bar with other men. This man likely played a more important role in Graziano's life (and depicted thus in his autobiography) than the movie shows. Apparently, Tony Zale was originally cast to play himself in this film. But when Newman got rough while sparring with him before the filming began, Zale knocked Newman out. So, Court Shepard replaced Zale for the film's final fight scene.Graziano's life had a happy ending, as does the movie. He lost the title the very next year to Zale (1948), but continued boxing for four more years. He won 20 of his next 21 fights, most by knockouts or TKOs, and had one draw. Then, on April 16, 1952, he again fought for the Middleweight title, but was knocked out halfway through the third round by Sugar Ray Robinson. I'm pretty sure I watched that fight on TV with my dad when we lived at Ft. Riley, Kansas, where he was serving in the Army.Graziano had one more fight five months later and he lost the 10-round bout in a unanimous decision. After that, he hung up his gloves. In 1971, he was elected to the Boxing Hall of Fame. He was a very popular celebrity and appeared as a guest on various TV programs and shows. He made TV commercials and built a local pizza chain In New York – Rocky Graziano's Pizza Ring. Rocky and Norma were married nearly 47 years when he died at age 71 on May 22, 1990. His funeral Mass took place in St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. This is an excellent film about a troubled kid from the streets of New York who used his fists inside the ring to turn his life around. The movie won two Oscars and was nominated for a third.

Rocky Graziano (Paul Newman) has to fights his drunken violent father as a kid and grows up to be a petty criminal. He is sent to prison where he violently resists. When he is finally released, he is immediately drafted by the Army for WWII. He goes AWOL and starts boxing. He is sentenced to Leavenworth where he continues to box. On the outside world, he continues to box, stays clean, gets married and has a family. He loses a title fight with Tony Zale. Then he gets into trouble with his past coming to haunt him.Originally set to be played by James Dean before his death, newcomer Paul Newman shows good promise. The movie is standard biopic. The acting is solid. However for a boxing movie, the boxing action is still not the best. It's old fashion intercut with other things in a montage. The most memorable hits come from the father hitting little Rocky early in the movie. This is much better as a character study and Newman shows his charms.

According to his second autobiography published in 1981, Rocky Graziano was paid $200,000 for the rights to make this movie. Perry Como does a memorable job singing the theme while Sammy Cahn wrote the lyrics.The story portrays Rocco Barbella, a young Italian boy who grew up on the East Side of New York during the 1920's and 1930's. During this era life was extremely difficult for Italian immigrant families as they could not get decent jobs which were already taken by other ethnic nationalities who had preceded their arrival in America.Young Rocco was always loyal to his family and especially his mother (played by Eileen Heckart.) Long before his teen years, faced with an abusive alcoholic father and extreme poverty, Rocco learns the way of the streets. He becomes a bona fide hoodlum in the process. In reality, many of his friends and enemies from this era wound up in Sing Sing's electric chair.Eileen Heckart plays a superb role as Ma Ida Barbella, a religious, worry stricken mother who refuses to give up on her difficult son. Harold Stone plays an excellent role as Rocky's father Nick Barbella, whose main resolve is in a wine bottle.We see Rocky as he finally hits rock bottom, a point from which the only way is back up. Coupled with his girlfriend and future bride Norma (played by Pier Angeli,) Rocky takes on the world of professional boxing and shows a talent with great potential. (It should be noted that Rocky was rated as one of the best punchers in middleweight history by Ring Magazine.) I'm critical about some of the early fight scenes; but in all fairness the ones toward the end are extremely well done.The most important thing to remember about the story is that Rocky "turned the leaf" against huge odds; and not doing so might have landed him in the death house at Sing Sing. And so it follows that Somebody up there really did like him ! Great story.

The movie has everything about the era going for it - crisp black and white photography, a flawed hero scrapping his way to respectability, and Perry Como singing the title song as the picture opens. I never knew what this film was about until I got more deeply into Paul Newman's work, and until I saw it tonight, I couldn't picture him in the role of boxing champ Rocky Graziano. I recall catching Graziano in any number of appearances in variety shows of the Fifties and Sixties, and Newman's casting just didn't seem to fit. But there's a lot to be said about his performance here, gritty and realistic in every respect. I couldn't help thinking of another Rocky, the one made famous by Sylvester Stallone in his own Oscar winning film made twenty years later.Not knowing the real Graziano's history, I can only go by the former boxer's own endorsement of the film as being the real deal. If even half of his story depicted in the film is accurate, you'd have to wonder how he ever caught the breaks to turn his life around. Credit future wife Norma (Pier Angeli) for providing that inspiration and keeping him on track.Film fans are in for some cool surprises here, like Sal Mineo and Steve McQueen as members of Rocky's unofficial gang as a youth, Everett Sloane as his eventual boxing manager, and Harold J. Stone as Rocky's pathetic father with a huge chip on his shoulder for a failed boxing career of his own. I've mostly seen Stone as an adequate character actor in various TV Westerns, but he really gives a strong portrayal here that impressed me with it's range. As for Rocky's mom, I don't believe I've ever seen Eileen Heckart before; her jail-house scene with Rocky seemed to provide him with the motivation he needed to make the crucial pivot in his life that eventually saved him.As for the boxing, there really didn't seem to be that much of it, taking a back seat to the personal story of a man who rose above his circumstances. Graziano's full career of eighty three matches resulting in a record of 67 wins, 10 losses and six draws isn't even hinted at, though the picture does convince you that he was one of the fiercest punchers of all time. It would have been neat if the real Rocky Graziano had made a cameo in the picture at some point, and I had to wonder why someone didn't think of it.