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68% Critic Match
Monkey on My Back
“SHOCK by SHOCK...It Jabs Like a Hopped-Up Needle!”
6.8 / 10• 1957• 1h 34m•NR• English
Drama
Storyline
The painfully true story of welterweight boxing champion Barney Ross is detailed in Monkey on My Back. Cameron Mitchell stars as Ross, whose meteoric ring career is interrupted when he joins the Marines at the outset of WWII. A highly decorated hero, Ross contracts malaria oversees and is given morphine to assuage the pain. By the time he returns to the states, Ross is a confirmed drug addict. Before he can rise to the top again, he must hit rock bottom and his descent into the hell of narcotics dependency is graphically illustrated (so much so that the film was almost denied a Production Code seal). Though a cured Barney Ross served as technical advisor for Monkey on My Back, he ended up suing the producers for defamation of character -- and lost.
Cast & Crew
Cameron Mitchell
Barney Ross
Lead
Dianne Foster
Cathy Holland
Paul Richards
Rico, Drug Pusher (as Paul E. Richards)
Jack Albertson
Sam Pian
Kathy Garver
Noreen
Lisa Golm
Barney's Mother
Barry Kelley
Big Ralph
Scotty Beckett
Corpsman (uncredited)
What People Are Saying
4.0
“A staggering achievement of craft and ambition. André de Toth's vision lands with breathtaking precision.”
3.0
“Every frame feels alive. Monkey on My Back is the rare release that takes its audience seriously.”
