Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Robert Wise

Writers:

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

Release Date:

3 July 1956 (USA)

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:

Boxing | Army | Match Fixing | Juvenile Delinquent | Deserter

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 1 win & 3 nominations

Cast

Paul Newman	...	Rocky Graziano
Pier Angeli	...	Norma Graziano
Everett Sloane	...	Irving Cohen
Eileen Heckart	...	Mrs. Ida '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:

114 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.75 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

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:

Stillman's Gym - 8th Avenue between 54th & 55th Streets, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Fresh off her Oscar win, Eva Marie Saint had been considered for the role of Norma.

Goofs:

Continuity: During the scene where the manager comes to the house, passing all the news crews, the door of the house has three small windows in descending order. Once inside the house with Rocky's wife the door in the background has an arched window instead of three small windows.

Quotes:

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

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Sound of Music: From Fact to Phenomenon (1994) (V)

Soundtrack:

Somebody Up There Likes Me

Somebody up there liked Paul Newman

Paul Newman stars as Rocky Graziano in the middleweight champion's life story, "Somebody Up There Likes Me," directed with spirit by Robert Wise. The film covers Rocky Barbella's young life on the mean streets of New York, made all the meaner by his juvenile delinquent presence and that of his friends. Totally out of control, Barbella steals, runs, and punches his way through his home life, reform school, and prison, including his army stint where he knocks out a corporal and goes AWOL, then assuming the name Graziano. It's not long before his talent is put to good use in the ring. The respectability and success he gains is short-lived, however, when he refuses to take a dive but then fails to report it to the boxing commission or identify the criminals.

The film covers Graziano's marriage to his wife of 47 years, Norma, and his historic fight with Tony Zale. Pier Angeli plays the petite but tough Norma, who knows just how to handle her husband; Eileen Heckert is marvelous as Rocky's mother. Harold Stone, as Rocky's disillusioned father, is very good in the difficult role of an unlikeable man with an uneasy relationship with his son. Sal Mineo is effective as Romolo, Rocky's friend from the neighborhood.

James Dean was to play Graziano but after his death, the role went to Paul Newman. Words are not really adequate to describe the young Newman's work in this film. He totally inhabits the character of Graziano and loses what one thinks of as "Paul Newman" in the bargain. One of the hardest accents to do without making it sound phony is a New York one, yet Newman pulls it off with no problem. Though Dean would have been excellent, Newman's portrayal is a treasure. He's angry, sympathetic, scrappy, vulnerable and caring - in short, a flawed human being. It's one of the finest performances on film.