Paradise Alley (Dual Format) [Blu-ray]

Description

Product Description   For the first time ever on Blu-Ray comes Sylvester Stallone’s directorial debut from 1978, his first project after his Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor Oscar nominations for Rocky in 1976. Stallone actually wrote this first but it was the success of Rocky that made this film possible… Stallone recalls: “I was very broke and I optioned the screenplay of PARADISE ALLEY to a real… how should I say this… maggot, who put his hooks in so deep I could never get it away from him. So the first time I went in to meet Chartoff and Winkler, I was there on an acting job. I didn’t get it, but on the way out I said, “I have this screenplay called PARADISE ALLEY.” They said to bring it over and I did. They wanted to make it, but the other cretin that I had optioned it to was so obnoxious, so overbearing, that the producers wanted nothing to do with me or the screenplay. So on the way out, they said, “If you have any ideas, we’d be happy to look at them.” That night I went home - even a fire extinguisher couldn’t cool the burning in my brain. The door of opportunity was wide open and I had nothing to carry over its threshold. That’s when I started to write ROCKY. So thank God for the maggot; otherwise I never would’ve written the story of Mr. Balboa.” Synopsis: Cosmo Carboni (Sylvester Stallone) and his brothers Lenny (Armand Assante) and Victor (Lee Canalito) live and work in a poor section of New York City known as "Hell's Kitchen" in the 1940s. Cosmo, particularly, sees that they need to get out of this depressing situation. When he sees an illegal wrestling match, he realizes that his younger brother Victor could have beat the champion handily -- and that a lot of money is being passed around. With some effort he persuades the kind-hearted boy to compete. Lenny, too, comes along for the ride: managing a wrestler is a lot more interesting than his old job at a funeral parlor. Pressure builds and the stakes grow higher, until a local mobster puts "Frankie the Thumper" into the ring, and Victor must fight for his life. This film marks Stallone's directorial debut: he also wrote the screenplay, starred, wrote a novel based on the film, and sings the title song.