Paradise Alley (1978)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

Director:

Sylvester Stallone

Writer:

Sylvester Stallone (written by)

Release Date:

22 September 1978 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

The Carboni Boys. They haul ice, lay out stiffs and dance with monkeys.

Plot:

Three Italian-American brothers, living in the slums of 1940's New York, try to help each other with one's wrestling career using one brother's promotional skills and another brother's con-artist tactics to tho wart a sleazy manager. |

Plot Keywords:

Italian American | Con Artist | Wrestling | New York | Street Performer

Cast

Sylvester Stallone	...	Cosmo Carboni
Lee Canalito	...	Victor Carboni
Armand Assante	...	Lenny Carboni
Frank McRae	...	Big Glory
Anne Archer	...	Annie
Kevin Conway	...	Stitch
Terry Funk	...	Frankie the Thumper
Joyce Ingalls	...	Bunchie
Joe Spinell	...	Burp
Aimée Eccles	...	Susan Chow
Tom Waits	...	Mumbles
Chick Casey	...	Doorman
James J. Casino	...	Paradise Bartender
Fredi O. Gordon	...	Paradise Alley Hooker
Lydia Goya	...	Bar Room Hooker #1

Runtime:

107 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Norway:18 (1979) | Iceland:12 | Australia:M | West Germany:18 | Netherlands:16 | Sweden:15 | Australia:PG (DVD rating) | Finland:K-16 | USA:PG | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Image Ten

Trivia:

Tom Waits' acting debut.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Cosmo drives Victor's ice truck up on the curb, the back panels fall of before they crash through the window. As the drive away, the wood panels are still on the truck.

Quotes:

Lenny: I promise you fifty wins before Christmas.
Burp: Your man gets IN THE RING forty of fifty times before Christmas he won't have enough brains left to tie his shoelaces. And then you'll have two cripples in the family.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Just Your Luck (1996) (V)

Soundtrack:

Angel Voice

Too close to paradise

This is a good fun, adventure movie made at the height of Sylvester Stallone's critical popularity he was awarded for Rocky (1976). Working hard as Paradise Alley's Writer, Director and Star, Sly does amazingly well, and his script and energetic direction are both full of color and finesse. Sly gets the best out of his main co-stars, Armande Assante and Lee Canalito, who along with Sly make up the underdog Carboni brothers. As Cosmo, Sly is a fun loving, wisecracking, con-man, who, unlike Rocky, is an unlikeable and unredeeming character. Somehow though, perhaps its with the shadow of Rocky over him, Stallone turns Cosmo into a likeable character, the heart and soul of the picture and gets you rooting for him and his brothers. Armand Assante as Lenny Carboni, is the movies most interesting character, he turns virtually over night from a good natured itallian catholic boy, into a tough, street wise Wrestling promoter, because he gives into the world he was born into. Lee Canalito gives a slightly amaturish performance as Victor, not surprising as he wasn't an actor prior to this film. However, with Canalito's physical appearance, and syrupy voice you never once doubt the inner animal waiting to escape the child, and Canalito, as Kid Salami is every bit as good as Sly as Rocky, in the wrestling scenes here. It is also nice to see Stallone regulars Frank McRae, as fallen Wrestling legend Big Glory in a heart breaking scene with Stallone's Cosmo, and Rocky's Mr Gazzo, Joe Spinelli turns up almost unrecognisably, as a garrish, wrestling ring master. It is not hard however to see why this film failed. At times it doesn't know what sort of movie it wants to be. Should it go for the laughs or the sentimentality? Is Stallone's character the hero or is it Assante's? Stallone turns out an efficient movie, his first time as director, but it really needed someone like John G Avildsen, no stranger to sports movies with Rocky, and Rocky V (1990) A Power of One (1989), not to mention The Karate Kid series, to just smooth out those rough edges. Also the 1940's New York setting is kind of surplus, Rocky was set in the present (for the time), and you feel that this movie could have been all the better for being modern. It is also kind of strange to see a bare chested hero in the ring at the movies climax other than Stallone, and again, had Cosmo been given a redemption of sorts, the film would have had more of that feel good factor so common with Sly's movies. However, Paradise Alley is a well made, acted and enjoyable romp. With fantastically coreographed Wrestling scenes, good characters and a nice breezy pace, and an emotion and adrenaline charged Bill Conti music score to die for. Oh, and that is Sylvester Stallone singing the movies theme song "Too close to Paradise" a good tune sung well by Sly, but you judge for yourself.

8/10