Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)

Director:

Robert Wise

Writers:

Ernest Lehman (screenplay)
Rocky Graziano (autobiography) ...

Release Date:

12 December 1956 (Japan)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Sport

Tagline:

A Girl Can Lift A Fellow To The Skies!

Plot:

Rocky Graziano is building a career in crime, when he's finally caught and arrested. In jail, he is undisciplined...

Plot Keywords:

Army | Boxing | Autobiographical | Deserter | New York City

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 1 win & 3 nominations

Cast

Paul Newman	...	Rocky
Pier Angeli	...	Norma
Everett Sloane	...	Irving Cohen
Eileen Heckart	...	Ma Barbella
Sal Mineo	...	Romolo
Harold J. Stone	...	Nick Barbella
Joseph Buloff	...	Benny
Sammy White	...	Whitey Bimstein
Arch Johnson	...	Heldon
Robert P. Lieb	...	District Attorney Hogan (as Robert Lieb)
Theodore Newton	...	Athletic Commissioner Edward Eagan

Runtime:

113 min (copyright time)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.75 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System) (Perspecta Sound)

Certification:

Spain:7 | Portugal:M/12 | Norway:16 | USA:Approved (certificate #18008) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Canada:PG (video rating) | Sweden:15 | Australia:G | Finland:K-16 | UK:A (original rating) (cut) | UK:PG (video rating) (1994)

Filming Locations:

Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

First movie for Angela Cartwright.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: When Norma asks Benny for directions how to get home after meeting Rocky in the early 1940s, he tells her to take a Subway route that did not exist until 1954.

Quotes:

Irving Cohen: I never should have left the lingerie business. I was the happiest man in women's underwear.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Get Smart: Someone Down Here Hates Me (#2.17)" (1967)

Soundtrack:

Somebody Up There Likes Me

Incomplete biography of Graziano

Probably the director Robert Wise wanted to emphasize more on the behavior of young Graziano, his problems with his father, the time he spent in jail and his misdoing in the army, but some aspects of his final life as a boxer were not shown at all in the film, which ends with the rematch between Graziano and Tony Zale in Chicago in 1947, where Graziano did his best to knock out Zale. With this victory Graziano became world champion, something that did not last for long. Zale and Graziano met once again in 1948, and this time Zale finished his adversary with a knock out in the third round. Graziano wanted to come back in 1952 fighting against the famous Ray "Sugar" Robinson. In that fight, Graziano knocked down Robinson in the third round, but he recovered and finished with Graziano in the same third round. In any case, Graziano was a good boxer, and this bloody -violent sport put his life on the right track. Interesting to note that this was the first film (uncredited) in the career of the actor Steve McQueen. Sal Mineo again acted as a wrong young boy in New York. The actress Pier Angeli did a good work as Graziano's wife.