Sunday, November 30, 2008
PAUL NEWMAN
Today's film was the first of my Paul Newman Fest. I will be looking at a dozen of his films over the year. Chronologically.
Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956)
This is Newman's second film. The first was a biblical epic The Silver Chalice. Not very good.
He had been in many television dramas and this, with Robert Wise as director, shows him in his rebel/outlaw mode which became his standby.
It is a biopic of Rocky Graziano the middle weight fighter who I remember if no one else does. He was a real character with a turbulent life before he found boxing and a marriage which settled him down.
This film is a bit of a cliché but very well done.
There are some great actors. Everett Sloane, Eileen Heckart, Harold Stone, Sal Mineo, Robert Loggia (uncredited), and Pier Angeli as Norma, the wife who saves his life.
The film is very fast moving. You get the story and move on. The boxing scenes are credible.
Newman always maintained that he was a character actor who happened to look like "Little Red Riding Hood". Rocky is a character role. And by the end he doesn't look like the little girl in red. He shows the rigors of the "profession" in his face.
I liked it. I will give it a 4 out of Netflix5. I wouldn't mind seeing it again sometime.
