Monkey On My Back (1957)

A three time world boxing champion and WWII hero (Cameron Mitchell) is known as "the pride of the ghetto" becomes addicted to heroin because of injuries suffered in WWII. Instead of getting help, he hides his addiction as his life spirals downward. Based on the life of Barney Ross, a real life boxing champion and WWII hero and directed by Andre DeToth (HOUSE OF WAX). Although based on a real person, like most movie biographies of the period, the telling is heavily fictionalized. Cameron Mitchell gives a strong performance so it's a pity the movie isn't better and it suffers coming only two years after the potent THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM which became the benchmark for movies about drug addiction for years to come and it suffers heavily in comparison. Good intentions do not a good movie make and MONKEY doesn't give us anything insightful or fresh. I also had a problem with the way the role of the wife (Dianne Foster) was written. Mitchell is jumping out of his skin and she doesn't put two and two together to figure out he's a junkie? With Jack Albertson, Barry Kelley, Kathy Garver and Paul Richards.