Tonight I've got a Ringside Special Welterweight Wednesday for you, and it's a movie that packs a wallop for a number of reasons! Even though he's the star of the show, look what amazingly small credit Leonard Nimoy gets on this poster!
"Kid Monk Baroni" just might be one of the most interesting movies you never heard of! I wasn't familiar with it, I just sat down to watch a 50's boxing movie being the big fan of the sweet science that I am, but this film is something else, it's real a pop culture jewel, but I digress!
The credits roll "Introducing Leonard Nimoy" and this is Mr. Spock's first starring role, but he did have two very very minor parts previous to "Kid Monk Baroni," in "Queen For A Day," and "Rhubarb!" Some of Leonard's other super cool, but less familiar roles include "Them!," and "The Brain Eaters!" He was also in the "Twilight Zone" episode "A Quality Of Mercy," and not one, but two "Outer Limits" episodes, "I, Robot," and "Production And Decay Of Strange Particles!"
Beautiful view of 1952 New York sky scape!
If you get in trouble, it's a one way trip to the Police Dept!
How's this for two classic icons in one shot? Jimmy Olsen and Mr. Spock!
The opening shot says. "The Billy Goat Gang" in "Kid Monk Baroni," but this gang of 50's punks shouldn't get mixed up with The Bowery Boys or The Dead End Kids, because except for the one fool who steals everything he can stick under his coat over and over, this group of young men is devoid of humor! Jack (Jimmy Olsen) Larson is Angelo, Budd Jaxon is Knuckles, Archer MacDonald is Pete, Wayne (The 7th Is Made Up Of Phantoms) Mallory is Tony, Ted Avery is Joey, and Leonard Nimoy is Paul 'Monk' Baroni.
Kathleen Freeman has 294 credits to her name, and has been in almost every movie and TV show ever made between 1948 and 2003, but she still sounds funny with her Italian accent as Kid Baroni's Mom!
Instead of molesting boys, the local priest teaches them to box in his makeshift gym in the basement of the church! Monk is slow at first but shows he has potential, especially in the power department!
Monk starts boxing in local amateur matches. He wins six matches and six watches, and every time he takes them to the pawn shop and gets two dollars, but after the sixth one, the guy at the pawn shop says enough is enough! He can only sell so many watches!
So Monk turns pro!
Monk has this horrible clubbing/chopping style that looks to me like it would even be illegal in a MMA match today, pounding down on the back of his opponent's head and neck!
Monk also likes classical music! This is a super classic 'Bozo-Approved' listening room at the local record store!
Because his face is slightly disfigured, Monk had never had any luck with girls until he meets Allene (Adventures Of Superman) Roberts as Emily Brooks! Emily makes Monk feel better about himself!
Monk falls in with a less than legitimate manager and team of backers, and they want him to exploit himself, and go all out as a bad guy, no matter what it takes!
Monk is really an intelligent and thoughtful person, but this new persona kind of fits his style too!
After he takes a beating, and his self confidence is waning, Emily suggests to Monk that maybe he should try and get some plastic surgery so that he will feel better about himself!
Here's the new good looking Monk! He's now so full of confidence that it's turned him into a cocky asshole!
Monk kind of forgets about Emily and picks up on Mona (Space Patrol) Knox, but she's just playing him, and after she gets him to buy her some furs etc, she drops him like a hot potato!
Time for Monk to take his new look into the ring!
Now Monk has gone from Mr. Excitement to the most boring fighter in the ring because he doesn't want to get hit in his pretty face any more!
If you like Leonard Nimoy, or boxing, or 1950's movies in general, I don't think you can go wrong wasting 79 minutes watching "Kid Monk Baroni." If it's a not a knockout, it's at least a unanimous decision!!
Kathleen Freeman was a real sweetie! I met her with a friend at a Kinko's shop in North Hollywood at about one in the morning, back in around 1987 or '88. Immediately recognized her, and said something like, "Hey! Kathleen Freeman!" and she said hello with a great big smile. She was there to make copies of something, so we started chatting. I mentioned a few of her roles, like Hogan's Heroes and a few movies I recalled off the top of my head, and when I mentioned the original 1950s THE FLY, well, she grabbed a blank sheet of paper and a pen, and made a squiggly line that ran all around and over the blank paper, ending with a cute little "fly" sketch, then wrote the titles of some of her most well-known genre works, and of course THE FLY, and autographed it to me just before she and her assistant finished their copies and headed out the door. My friend and I left the shop on Cloud Nine and headed for an all-night eatery to talk about what a great end to a hectic day it was for us! Lots of smiles at our booth over soda and pizza. :)
ReplyDeleteMaybe "The Billy Goat Gang" was intended to be a series similar to the Bowery Boys, but, AFAIK, there were no sequels.
ReplyDeleteNimoy was also in Zombies of the Stratosphere, aka Satan's Satellites, in a bit part as one of the Martian invaders.
Sergeant Rutledge (1960) had one thing in common with Kid Monk Baroni: Woody Strode played the title role, but did not have top billing on the poster or in the opening credits of the film itself.
ReplyDeleteNobody wants to gamble on nobodies!
ReplyDeleteOddly enough, though he was a steady worker, Star Trek was Nimoy's FIRST steady acting gig.
ReplyDelete