Monkey on My Back *** (1957, Cameron Mitchell, Dianne Foster, Jack Albertson, Paul Richards) – Classic Movie Review 8920

Director André de Toth’s 1957 Monkey on My Back is a downbeat but compelling biopic about the rise and fall of champion boxer, World War Two war hero and morphine addict Barney Ross.

It is sometimes depressing, but there is a good central performance by Cameron Mitchell that is both effective and convincing, while the story is warm-heartedy handled with a generous spirit.

There is fine action in the ring, too, and there are painstaking hospital cold-turkey sequences.

Also in the cast are Dianne Foster, Jack Albertson, Paul Richards, Kathy Garver, Barry Kelley, Lisa Golm, Dayton Lummis, Lewis Charles, Raymond Greenleaf, Richard Benedict, Brad Harris, Robert Holton, Scotty Beckett, and Martha Wentworth.

Rico, Drug Pusher (Paul Richards): ‘You don’t understand champ. The real torture hasn’t started yet. The monkey will be on your back tomorrow.’

Monkey on My Back is directed by André de Toth, runs 93 minutes, is made by Imperial Pictures Inc [Edward Small Productions], is released by United Artists, is written by Crane Wilbur, Anthony Veiller and Paul Dudley, based on the book by Barney Ross and biographical material furnished by Ivan Bunny, is shot in black and white by Maury Gertsman, is produced by Edward Small and Robert E Kent (associate producer), and scored by Paul Sawtell, with Art Direction by Frank Hotaling.

Barney Ross called movie garbage, although it was based on his autobiography and he was paid as a consultant to the film.

It advertised: ‘Not Since The Man with the Golden Arm Has the Screen Told So Daring a Story!’

Our Gang child star of the 1930s and 1940s Scotty Beckett makes his final film appearance in his small role as a Navy corpsman with the Marine Corps who helps Ross get hooked on morphine. The tragic Beckett later self-destructed and died of a drug overdose on 10 May 1968, aged 38.

In August 1957, it was showing in a double bill with Island in the Sun (1957).

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8920

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