United States

Three Brothers... One had the brains, one had the muscle and one had the suit. Together they had a million dollar dream.
Sylvester "Rocky" Stallone wrote, directed and stars in this serio-comic story about the Carboni brothers, three losers living in New York circa 1946. All they want in life is to get the hell out of Hell's Kitchen, to get away from the neighborhood wise guys and dime-a-dance girls. And Cosmo (Sylvester Stallone), the boisterous wit of the family and a clever con artist, finds a way for them to do it; he gets his brother Victor, an iceman, to start wrestling as "Kid Salami" in Paradise Alley, a sleazy private club where the floorshow consists of wrestling matches, with the background betting action a means of making big money. The eldest Carboni brother, Lenny, who "crates stiffs" at a funeral parlor, becomes Victor's manager. As Victor begins his rise as a wrestler, tension builds between Lenny and Cosmo; but the three brothers are united against the insidious Stitch Mahon and his gang of belligerents - including the strong-armed, thick-skulled Franky the Thumper, who Victor must wrestle in the film's rousing climax.