You like me! You really like me!

Another movie that I finally got around to watching after having it on my DVR for a couple of months is the movie that made Paul Newman a star, Somebody Up There Likes Me

After an absolutely terrible opening song by Perry Como, we're introduced to Rocco Barbella (Paul Newman). He's a street criminal in the slums of New York just not long before World War II, comming petty robberies with a gang of friends including Romolo (Sal Mineo), and generally causing all sorts of heartache for his mom (Eileen Heckart). His Dad (Harold J. Stone) doesn't seem to care much for him.

Eventually, Rocco's crimes get him put into the reformatory, where he punches his way out of any problem he has. Then after being released, the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, sending the US into World War II. Rocco, despite his criminal record, is drafted, but the military life just isn't for him, so he punches a commanding officer and goes AWOL!

He winds up at a gym, where in order to make a quick $10, decides to become a sparring partner. He's good at it, and it gets him fights under the tutelage of manager/trainer Irving Cohen (Everett Sloane) where he can make more. But, unfortunately, the military eventually finds him, and since he deserted, he gets a year in Fort Leavenworth. There, he really learns how to fight, and when he gets out, he becomes a true professional boxer, taking the name Rocky Graziano so nobody will learn of his past.

He also meets Norma (Pier Angeli), who would become his wife, although she doesn't exactly like being married to a boxer, especially because the scars and bandages frighten their daughter. He rises up the middleweight ranks, and eventually gets his first title fight, which he loses, getting knocked out.

Rocky is going to get a rematch, with a warm-up fight in between. But on the eve of that warm-up bout, his past comes back to haunt him, forcing him to fake an injury and back out, costing him his New York boxing license and moving the title fight rematch to Chicago. Now, since Rocky Graziano is a real person, we know how the story is going to end, but there are still some twists and turns along the way.

There's some quite good stuff in Somebody Up There Likes Me, but also some not-so-good stuff. Paul Newman, of course, is one of the good things, delivering a fine performance that deservedly made him a star. The cinematography of the second title fight is also excellent, reminiscent of Raging Bull two dozen years later and cementing in my mind that the latter movie doesn't quite deserve its reputation as one of the greatest movies of all time.

As for the bad, I already mentioned the Perry Como song. There's also the formulaic script and writing that requires people to be too shrill at times. There's also a climactic emotional scene between father and son that really reminded me of the one in another early Newman film, The Rack, both scenes were overwrought.

Somebody Up There Likes Me did get a DVD release courtesy of the Warner Archive. For some reason, the TCM Shop has it on backorder, although the last time I checked the DVD was available at Amazon. I believe .you can also watch it on Prime Video if you do the streaming thing.