BEFORE: See, I said there was one more boxing movie to get to, and here it is. This was originally supposed to be in the chain a lot closer to the other boxing films, but a couple other Paul Newman films intervened. This was necessary to maintain the link to tomorrow's film, which is on a completely different topic. Paul Newman carries over from "Fat Man and Little Boy", for the final time in this chain.
THE PLOT: Based on the life of middleweight boxing legend Rocky Graziano.
AFTER: We're going all the way back to 1956 tonight, this wasn't Paul Newman's first film, but it was darn close to it. Originally, James Dean was supposed to star in this film, but he died in an auto accident in 1955. (Most people would say "tragically died", but the extra word is unnecessary, since all deaths are tragic. See, it goes without saying.) But we do have the first screen appearances of Steve McQueen AND Robert Loggia - it's weird to see Loggia as a young(ish) man, I'm so used to seeing him older.
Many of the events here came straight from the real Thomas Barbella's life (why most people know him as "Rocky Graziano" is a key plot point, I won't spoil it all here) but this film was so influential to later boxing films. How much of Stallone's Rocky Balboa character is cribbed from this earlier Rocky? The street fighter with the troubled past, the slurred speech, the shy girlfriend - who'd have thought that Stallone's most famous performance owed so much to Paul Newman?
Graziano had early promise as a boxer, but his career couldn't really get off the ground, as he was in and out of various reform schools and then prisons. Then along came World War II, but it turned out that Rocky wasn't much for discipline, whether that came from a teacher, a prison guard, or an army captain. He went AWOL from the army, and when he started boxing again, that enabled the MP's to track him down, which meant a year in Leavenworth federal prison. (Hmm, a year in prison or serving in World War II - as unpatriotic as it sounds, in that situation I'd seriously consider doing the time...in a year you'd be an ex-con, but more likely to be alive.)
(Hey, wait, I feel like I've seen this story before - was this the inspiration for "Undisputed", too?)
Once released, it was back to boxing, but Graziano also had his troubles with the NY State Boxing Commission - basically, it seems like this guy had trouble following rules throughout his entire life. There's a good contrast here between Rocky and his father, who was also a boxer under the name "Fighting Nick Bob" (again, unnecessary wordage - you'd think that the "Fighting" part was a given). Rocky's father gave up on boxing in order to have a family, and that led to a lifetime of regret - after all, there's nothing that says you can't be both a boxer and a father. But it was a different time.
Graziano was known as an upset fighter, meaning that he won matches he wasn't "supposed" to win - his manager reportedly kept putting him up against better and better fighters, hoping that he'd be defeated, and therefore maybe consider the benefits of a proper training regimen. But again, this guy and discipline just didn't mix well together.
Also starring Pier Angeli, Everett Sloane (last seen in "The Lady from Shanghai"), Eileen Heckart (last seen in "Bus Stop"), Robert Loggia (last seen in "Shrink"), Sal Mineo (last seen in "Rebel Without a Cause"), Harold J. Stone, Joseph Buloff, with cameos from Steve McQueen, Dean Jones, Len Lesser, Robert Duvall (last seen in "Gone in 60 Seconds"), Stanley Adams.
RATING: 5 out of 10 pints of maple walnut ice cream
No comments:
Post a Comment