Somebody Up There Likes Me

"Somebody Up There Likes Me" (1956) — watch online on iFILM, Robert Wise's boxing biopic based on the memoir of real middleweight champion Rocky Graziano. Paul Newman takes the lead role, several years before The Hustler.

Rocky came up on the streets of New York's Lower East Side, where fists settled arguments before words did. Prison didn't straighten him out; it just delayed things. Manager Irving Cohen saw something worth salvaging in the chaos and steered him toward professional boxing. The climb involved suspensions, a court-martial, and a stretch of losses before anything clicked. Newman plays Graziano without softening him — impulsive, cornered, and stubbornly searching for a reason to keep going. A very young Steve McQueen has a small part. Watch "Somebody Up There Likes Me" in good quality online on iFILM.