Somebody Up There Likes Me

Somebody Up There Likes Me. 1956 MGM/Turner Entertainment.
Starring: Paul Newman, Pier Angeli, Everett Sloane, Eileen Heckardt, Sal Mineo, Ray Stricklyn
Director: Robert Wise
Currently available only as part of the Paul Newman Collection.

This film adaptation of boxing legend Rocky Graziano's autobiography was originally intended to star James Dean, but he died before production began, so Paul Newman was asked to take his place. This film was just his third role in Hollywood. Steve McQueen, Frank Campanella, Robert Loggia and Dean Jones all appear in bit parts.

Graziano has a difficult childhood, and is often beaten by his father. As he grows older, Rocky joins a gang and embarks on a life of petty crime, which ends in a prison sentence, where he isn't exactly a model prisoner. After being released, he is drafted into the Army, but he eventually goes AWOL after numerous scrapes with authority figures. Deciding the only way he could ever make an honest living is with his fists, Rocky decides to become a boxer, discovering his natural talent. After winning six matches in a row, Rocky is found by the Army, dishonorably discharged, and sent to Leavenworth for a year.

After his release, Graziano resumes his career, and meets his sister's friend Norma (Angeli), who he falls in love with and later marries. Norma helps Rocky, who carried his bad attitude into his boxing career, develop a conscience and some self-respect. Graziano eventually defeats Tony Zale for the middleweight championship, who had earlier beaten him. After losing to Zale the first time, Rocky is blackmailed by an old prison acquaintance, but he refuses to name his blackmailer, which briefly gets his license suspended.

Recommended film.

Executive Suite

Executive Suite. 1954 MGM/Turner Entertainment.
Starring: William Holden, Barbara Stanwyck, Fredric March, Walter Pidgeon, Shelley Winters
Director: Robert Wise
Buy Executive Suite at Amazon.
Also available as part of the Barbara Stanwyck Signature Collection.

Tredway Corporation head Avery Bullard dies at a critical time. His company, which manufactures furniture, has lost ground to competitors, and Bullard never groomed a successor, so the board of directors need to vote for his replacement.

The favorite is Loren Shaw (March), an executive more concerned with profitability and satisfying stockholders than rejuvenating the firm with new ideas. He has the support of the main shareholder, Julia Tredway (Stanwyck), as well as another board member, George Caswell (Louis Calhern).

The other choice is the creative young engineer Don Walling (Holden), who would rather develop new products and more efficient manufacturing methods than become head of the whole company. His wife Mary (June Allyson) is against him taking a new position, unlike company vice president Frederick Alderson (Pidgeon), who is Walling's best friend, and who sees him as the best home for saving the firm, even if Don is five years "too young" for the position.

Interesting film, I felt. Recommended.

The Day the Earth Stood Still

I saw the 2008 remake on Saturday night, and decided to watch and review the original film today.

This is not to be confused with MST3K experiment #422, The Day the Earth Froze. No Sampo, in other words.

The Day the Earth Stood Still. 1951 20th Century Fox.
Starring: Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Sam Jaffe, Billy Gray, Frances Bavier, Lock Martin
Director: Robert Wise
Buy The Day the Earth Stood Still at Amazon.

An alien named Klaatu (Michael Rennie) lands in a Washington D.C. park, declaring that he has come on a goodwill mission, only to get shot by a nervous soldier when he opens a small device. Gort the robot emerges from the spaceship to harmlessly disarm the U.S. soldiers. Klaatu is taken to a military hospital to recover, and that is where he reveals that he has a message for the entire world, but too many of the world's leaders are at odds, and probably wouldn't even agree on a meeting place. Klaatu then, after being told that he is in "protective custody", leaves the hospital and assumes the identity of "Mr. Carpenter", living among normal people to learn more about them.

After a meeting with Professor Jacob Barnhardt (Jaffe), Klaatu is offered a chance to convey his message to a group of scientists, saying that Earth will be eliminated if his message is rejected. Barnhardt asks for a "little demonstration" of Klaatu's powers as a warning, which he does the following day, neutralizing electric power (except for critical systems like hospitals and planes in flight) worldwide for 30 minutes.

The film ends with Klaatu getting assassinated, revived, and telling the assembled scientists that humanity's penchant for violence and its baby steps into space have caused concern among the other spacefaring worlds. The aliens have also created more robot enforcers like Gort, who are capable of dealing with anything. Klaatu warns the people of Earth that they can either abandon warfare and peacefully join other worlds, or be destroyed, making sure to emphasize that the "decision rests with you".

Yes, it's completely different than the 2008 remake. Recommended, though.