Mac Coy aux poings d'or

No he's no Di Niro but his street pug slugging came off very real. Mickey Rooney looked like he was really taking some shots up there and I wouldn't doubt it if he actually insisted on doing it for the realism. Either that or the editing deserved an Oscar! Interesting cameo of , Johnny Andrisiano,( Rocky ) the real-life fighter who trained Mic for the film. (And who died mysteriously-suicide?) Also keep your eyes peeled for a quick but fleeting glimpse of Shelly Winters as one of two autograph hounds in the car. James Dunn playing his poor song-and-dance soul was superb! This movie is a rare gem and it really deserves more credit than it's given.

I just caught this movie on TCM not long ago and it features some of the best boxing sequences ever filmed. Starring Mickey Rooney, Ann Blythe and Brian Doneley. Mickey Rooney was in top form here and was very good in this film. It's easy to see why he was and is one of the most loved actors of all time. The movie is entertaining from beginning to end. Another great boxing film that also starring Mickey Rooney along side Anthony Quinn is Requiem For A Heavyweight made in 1963. (I believe that was the year.)Mickey Rooney plays the boxer's sympathetic trainer and is also very good in this one. Check Killer McCoy out the next time it plays on TCM.

Tommy McCoy (Mickey Rooney) is a hustler in general and hustles pool specifically. He challenges a boxer in a charity event and catches the eye of boxing champ Johnny Martin. It's steady climb and then he gets into the ring with Martin.

Rooney is trying something a little different. I love him but I don't really buy him as a boxer. He has enough muscles but he's not a good fighter. The staging is not helping. He's flailing around like a dancer. I don't buy him even outside the ring. He's no Rocky. Maybe they could play it off as his advantage. He's smarter than the usual dumb brutes who fight and he fights like a dancer. As for the drama, I would have thought that his fight with Johnny Martin should be set up as the climax. Quite frankly, he should quit fighting after the incident. It's nice to have the wife come talk to him afterwards but it's not elevating the emotional drama. It's an emotional excuse for him to continue. I love Rooney no matter what. This is one of the no matter whats.

In his second film since coming back from war service MGM thought that a remake of the Robert Taylor classic from 1938 The Crowd Roars would be perfectly suited for Mickey Rooney. With a little post war updating it was in fact a perfect film for him now entitled Killer McCoy.

As the ambitious young prizefighter Mickey Rooney is perfectly cast in the role. Although the role had to be taken down a few pegs in weight division, I believe Robert Taylor was a middleweight in the first film, given Rooney's size and build he's now a lightweight. But not in acting talent by any means.

As in the first film Rooney's Achilles heel is his father, a lovable drunk loafer who has a nasty habit of getting into bets involving slow horses. That puts Rooney in a vulnerable spot given his rising career as a boxer. Taking over from Frank Morgan who was great in the role in The Crowd Roars is James Dunn, equally as good.

In fact playing just such a part two years earlier had earned Dunn a Best Supporting Actor for A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. Sad to say that Dunn was playing a version of himself. At the time he was cast in A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Dunn's drinking had rendered nearly unemployable. That Oscar gave his career a resuscitation, but Dunn would do mostly television after this role.

Rooney's love interest and also well cast as the sheltered daughter of gambler Brian Donlevy is Ann Blyth. They did work well together, too bad they didn't do a few more films. Also Sam Levene as Rooney's trainer gives a good performance as well.

Killer McCoy was a good part for Rooney. Sad to say in his next two films he was miscast and MGM dropped him. They should have given more material like Killer McCoy.

A slum kid fights his way to the top despite an alcoholic dad and a bunch of tricky gamblers.

MGM does a boxing movie, not exactly its usual glamorous fare. And though the movie suffers in comparison with the gritty, noirish classics of the time, Body and Soul (1947) and The Set-Up (1949), Rooney lends a kind of manic energy that remains compelling. In fact, the film's shrewdly cast, from bit parts to leads, making it easy to overlook the film's theatrical over-tones. Sure, it's a vehicle for Rooney, to toughen his Andy Hardy image, but the producers have surrounded him with a first-rate cast, and a pretty good story that's got just enough twists to carry past the many clichés.

My favorite parts are surprisingly some of the talky parts—the two gamblers Tully and Donlevy, each thinking he's outfoxing the other; or the two boxers Rooney and Steele, buddying up in the nightclub after their match; or a cynical Rooney finding out the chippie waitress does have more on her mind than casual sex. Each is cleverly written and expertly performed. I just wish Rooney had hooked himself to a generator where all that energy could have lit up a city.

No, the movie's neither memorable nor a boxing classic, but it does make it as 100-minutes of colorful entertainment.