:On the Waterfront

New York prizefighter Terry Malloy's career was cut short when he purposely lost a fight at the request of mob boss Johnny Friendly. Terry now works for Friendly's labor union as a longshoreman while his older, more educated brother Charley is Friendly's right-hand man. Terry is coerced into luring fellow worker Joey Doyle onto a rooftop, where he believes Friendly's henchmen want to talk Joey out of testifying to the Waterfront Crime Commission. When they instead murder Joey by throwing him off the roof, Terry confronts Friendly, but is threatened and bribed into acquiescence.

Joey's sister Edie and priest Father Barry try to inspire the dockworkers to stand up to Friendly. Terry attends the meeting as a snitch, but when it is violently broken up by Friendly's men, he helps Edie escape and misses Father Barry convincing one worker to testify. After the testimony, the worker is killed in a staged workplace accident.

Terry's unwillingness to testify is softened by his growing feelings for Edie, and her and Father Barry’s pursuit of justice. He confesses his role in Joey's death to both. Shocked by this, Edie distances herself from him.

Friendly sends Charley with a job offer to keep Terry quiet. Knowing refusal will get Terry killed, Charley urges him to comply. When Terry expresses regret about throwing his best fight and blames Charley for setting up the fix, Charley hands him a gun and tells him to run. Terry finds Edie and they kiss. After hearing someone in the street, they find Charley murdered.

Determined to kill Friendly, Terry is convinced by Father Barry to instead testify in court. Following the hearing, Friendly loses his powerful connections and faces indictment.

When he is excluded from the next hiring call at the harbor, Terry confronts Friendly together with the other workers, saying that he is proud of testifying and no longer betraying himself. After seeing Terry get beaten severely by Friendly’s thugs, the longshoremen refuse to work without him and renounce Friendly, wishing to run the union "on the up-and-up". Encouraged by Edie and Father Barry, Terry stumbles to the warehouse. The men follow him inside and the door closes, leaving Friendly outside, ignored by the workers and shippers.

{{castlist|

• Marlon Brando as Terry Malloy
• Eva Marie Saint as Edie Doyle
• Karl Malden as Father Pete Barry
• Lee J. Cobb as Michael J. Skelly aka "Johnny Friendly"
• Rod Steiger as Charley "the Gent" Malloy
• Pat Henning as Timothy J. "Kayo" Dugan
• Leif Erickson as Lead Investigator for Crime Commission
• James Westerfield as Big Mac
• Tony Galento as Truck
• Tami Mauriello as Tillio
• John F. Hamilton as "Pop" Doyle
• John Heldabrand as Mott
• Rudy Bond as Moose
• Don Blackman as Luke
• Arthur Keegan as Jimmy
• Abe Simon as Barney
• Fred Gwynne as Mladen "Slim" Sekulovich (uncredited)
• Martin Balsam as Gillette, Secondary Investigator for Crime Commission (uncredited)
• Katherine MacGregor as a longshoreman's mother (uncredited){{Cite news |title=Katherine MacGregor, the scheming Mrs. Oleson of 'Little House,' dies at 93 |first=Matt |last=Schudel |date=2018-11-14 |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/katherine-macgregor-the-scheming-mrs-oleson-of-little-house-dies-at-93/2018/11/14/7b2a6146-e826-11e8-a939-9469f1166f9d_story.html |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=2022-03-27 |url-access=limited |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181115030601/https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/katherine-macgregor-the-scheming-mrs-oleson-of-little-house-dies-at-93/2018/11/14/7b2a6146-e826-11e8-a939-9469f1166f9d_story.html |archive-date=2018-11-15 |url-status=live}}
• Pat Hingle as Jocko (uncredited){{cite news| title=Pat Hingle, Versatile Actor With Recurring Role in Batman Movies, Dies at 84| url= https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/arts/05hingle.html| last=Severo| first=Richard| date=January 5, 2009| newspaper=The New York Times| access-date=July 11, 2024|url-access=subscription}}
• Nehemiah Persoff as Cab Driver (uncredited)
• Thomas Hanley as Tommy (credited as Thomas Handley){{Cite web|title=On the Waterfront – Credits|url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/4749/on-the-waterfront#credits|access-date=December 12, 2021|website=Turner Classic Movies}}

}}

Image:Eva marie saint marlon brando waterfront 1.jpg

File:Eva marie saint marlon brando waterfront 14 (edit).jpg

Image:Karl malden eva marie saint waterfront 4.jpg

{{further|McCarthyism}}

The film is widely considered to be Elia Kazan's answer to those who criticized him for identifying eight Communists in the film industry before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) in 1952. One of Kazan's critics was his friend and collaborator, the noted playwright Arthur Miller, who had earlier written the first version of the script, originally titled The Hook. Kazan had agreed to direct it, and in 1951 they met with Harry Cohn at Columbia Pictures about making the picture. Cohn agreed in principle to make The Hook, but there were concerns about the portrayal of corrupt union officials.{{cite web | url=https://www.sealionpress.co.uk/post/tales-from-development-hell-the-hook | title=Tales from Development Hell: The Hook | date=January 12, 2024 }} When Cohn asked that the antagonists be changed to Communists, Miller refused. Cohn sent a letter telling Miller it was interesting he had resisted Columbia's desire to make the movie "pro-American". Kazan asked Miller to rewrite the script; Miller declined due to his disenchantment with Kazan's friendly testimony before the HUAC. Kazan then replaced Miller with Budd Schulberg.{{cite news | first=Geneveive | last=Haas | title=Dartmouth acquires Budd Schulberg '36 papers | date=November 21, 2006 | url=http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/2006/11/21a.html | work=Dartmouth News | access-date=January 6, 2007 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070206144751/http://www.dartmouth.edu/~news/releases/2006/11/21a.html | archive-date=February 6, 2007 | df=mdy-all }} The screenwriter later recalled how he had researched the story on the docks: "I spent two years down there. I sat in on meetings the rebels held and roamed about the waterfront bars. I saw what a shapeup was like. I would report back to Kazan on what I had seen. Kazan made many suggestions in the course of my writing."{{Cite web |title=American Legends Interviews..... Budd Schulberg -On the Waterfront |url=https://americanlegends.com/Interviews/budd_schulberg.html |access-date=2025-01-21 |website=americanlegends.com}}

Cobb's character of Johnny Friendly was partly modeled on Johnny Dio, a real-life mobster known for involvement in labor racketeering.Russell, Thaddeus Out of the Jungle: Jimmy Hoffa and the Remaking of the American Working Class. Rev. ed. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2003. {{ISBN|1-59213-027-5}}

According to Richard Schickel in his biography of Kazan, Marlon Brando initially declined the role of Terry Malloy, and Frank Sinatra (a native of Hoboken, where the film was being made) then had "a handshake deal"{{spnd}}but no formally signed contract{{spnd}}to play the part, even attending an initial costume fitting. But Kazan still favored Brando for the role, partly because casting Brando would assure a larger budget for the picture. While Brando's agent, Jay Kanter, attempted to persuade Brando to change his mind, Kazan enlisted actor Karl Malden, whom Kazan considered more suited to a career as a director than as an actor, to direct and film a screen test of a "more Brando-like" actor as Terry Malloy, to persuade producer Sam Spiegel that "an actor like Marlon Brando" could perform the role more forcefully than Sinatra. To that end, Malden filmed a screen test of Actors Studio members Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward performing the love scene between Terry and Edie. Persuaded by the Newman/Woodward screen test, Spiegel agreed to reconsider Brando for the role, and shortly afterward, Kanter convinced Brando to reconsider his refusal. Within a week, Brando signed a contract to perform in the film. At that point, a furious Sinatra demanded to be cast in the role of Father Barry, the waterfront priest. It was left to Spiegel to break the news to Sinatra that Malden had been signed for this role.

On the Waterfront was filmed over 36 days on location in various places in Hoboken, New Jersey, including the docks, workers' slum dwellings, bars, littered alleys, and rooftops. The church used for exterior scenes in the film was the historic Our Lady of Grace, built in 1874, while the interiors were shot at the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul at 400 Hudson Street.{{cite movielove}}, p. 10-11

Upon its release, the film received positive reviews from critics, and was a commercial success, earning an estimated $4.2 million at the North American box office in 1954.'The Top Box-Office Hits of 1954', Variety (January 5, 1955) In his July 29, 1954, review, New York Times critic A. H. Weiler called the film "an uncommonly powerful, exciting, and imaginative use of the screen by gifted professionals".Weiler, A. H. [https://www.nytimes.com/1954/07/29/movies/19540729waterfront.html?_r=0 "Movie Review: On the Waterfront"] New York Times (July 29, 1954)

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a score of 99% from 111 reviews, with an average rating of 9.2/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "With his electrifying performance in Elia Kazan's thought-provoking, expertly constructed melodrama, Marlon Brando redefined the possibilities of acting for film and helped permanently alter the cinematic landscape".{{cite web |title=On the Waterfront |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/on_the_waterfront/ |access-date=August 13, 2023 |work=Rotten Tomatoes |publisher=Fandango Media}} On Metacritic, the film holds a weighted average score of 91 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".{{Cite web |title=On the Waterfront Reviews |url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/on-the-waterfront |access-date=August 13, 2023 |website=Metacritic |publisher=Fandom, Inc.}}

Gaining the Academy Award for Best Actor and being named the greatest and second-greatest film performance of all time by Aaron West of Criterion and by Premiere respectively,{{cite news|last=Pryor |first=Thomas M. |title='Waterfront,' Brando, Grace Kelly Win 'Oscars' |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/specials/oscars/flashback-1954.html |access-date=August 1, 2020 |work=The New York Times |location=Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States |date=March 31, 1955}}{{cite news|last=West |first=Aaron |title=On the Waterfront: The Great Performances |url=https://criterioncloseup.com/2015/05/15/on-the-waterfront-the-great-performances/ |access-date=August 24, 2020 |work=Criterion Close-Up |date=May 15, 2015}}{{cite news|title=100 Greatest Movie Performances of All Time by Premiere Magazine § Part 4 |url=https://www.filmsite.org/100greatperformances4.html |access-date=August 1, 2020 |website=Filmsite.org }} Brando's performance is regarded as one of the watershed moments in the history of movies.Khairy, Wael. [https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-on-the-waterfront-1954 "Review: On the Waterfront'(1954)."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140314131915/http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-on-the-waterfront-1954 |date=March 14, 2014 }} Roger Ebert.com, March 21, 1999. Retrieved April 5, 2015.{{cite news|last=Khairy |first=Wael |title=He coulda been a contender |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/far-flung-correspondents/he-coulda-been-a-contender |access-date=August 18, 2020 |website=RogerEbert.com |date=September 21, 2011}} Through his portrayal of Terry Malloy, Brando popularized method acting and conclusively exemplified the power of Stanislavski-based approach in cinema. Praising Brando in 2004, director Martin Scorsese noted: "Everything that we know about the power of great screen acting relates back to him: when you watch his work in On the Waterfront ... you're watching the purest poetry imaginable, in dynamic motion".{{cite web|agency=Associated Press |title=Marlon Brando redefined acting |url=https://www.today.com/popculture/marlon-brando-redefined-acting-wbna5354214 |access-date=July 20, 2020 |work=Official website of The Today Show |date=July 3, 2004}} Kazan, the director of the film, would later write in his book, "If there is a better performance by a man in the history of film in America, I don't know what it is."{{sfn|Girgus|1998|p=175}}

Al Pacino, recounting his own memories on first seeing On the Waterfront, told Playboy in a 1979 interview that he concentrated more on the lead actor than the film itself, "I couldn't move. I couldn't leave the theatre. I'd never seen the like of it."{{cite news|last=Hunter|first=Allan|url=https://archive.list.co.uk/the-list/1994-07-29/71/|title=Wild at heart|date=July 29, 1994|issue=232|work=The List|page=69|access-date=August 18, 2020}} Anthony Hopkins said, "When you see Brando in the famous cab scene in On the Waterfront, it's still breathtaking."{{cite news|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/altoona-mirror-apr-09-1998-p-23/|title=NEA Crossword|date=April 9, 1998|work=Altoona Mirror|page=23|access-date=August 18, 2020|url-access=subscription}} In a eulogy for Brando, Jack Nicholson described his display "probably the height of any age", and added that, "You just couldn't take your eyes off the guy. He was spellbinding."{{cite magazine|last=Nicholson |first=Jack |author-link=Jack Nicholson |title=Remembering Marlon Brando, by Jack Nicholson |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-news/remembering-marlon-brando-by-jack-nicholson-187366/ |access-date=August 1, 2020 |magazine=Rolling Stone |date=August 19, 2004}}

In 1989, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress, and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

In 1995, it made it on the Vatican's list of 45 important films.{{cite web |url=http://archive.usccb.org/movies/vaticanfilms.shtml |title=Vatican Best Films List |publisher=USCCB |access-date=March 7, 2010 |archive-date=April 18, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070418125227/http://www.usccb.org/movies/vaticanfilms.shtml |url-status=dead }}

American Film Institute recognition

• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies – #8
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains:
• Terry Malloy – #23 Hero
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes:
• "You don't understand! I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody instead of a bum, which is what I am." – #3
• AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores – #22
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers – #36
• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – #19

{{Anchor|Video|DVD|DVD release}}

The first home video release of the film was by Columbia Pictures Home Entertainment in 1982, on VHS and Beta. RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video later re-released it in 1984, 1986, and 1990, respectively, the latter being a part of the Columbia Classics line-up. Columbia TriStar later reissued the film on VHS in 1995 as part of the line-up's "Studio Heritage Collection", and the first DVD version was released in 2001. Among the special features is the featurette "Contender: Mastering the Method", a video photo gallery, an interview with Elia Kazan, an audio commentary, filmographies, production notes, and theatrical trailers. The film has been added to the Criterion Collection.

The 2013 Criterion Collection release presents the film in three aspect ratios: 1.66:1, 1.85:1, and 1.33:1. The accompanying booklet explains the reasoning behind this choice: "In 1953, Columbia Pictures was transitioning to the new widescreen format and declared that all its upcoming films, including On The Waterfront, would be suitable for projection in any aspect ratio from the full frame of 1.33:1 to the then widest standard of 1.85:1. The customary frame of European cinematographer Boris Kaufman (Twelve Angry Men, Baby Doll) split the difference at 1.66:1, so that all that was required was for him to leave extra room at the top and bottom of the frame and make sure that nothing essential would be lost in the widescreen presentation. At its premiere in 1954, On The Waterfront was projected at 1.85:1. Over subsequent decades, millions of television viewers became accustomed to seeing the film with the open-matte 1.33:1 framing, a presentation that has carried over into the home video era. Here, for the first time, Criterion is presenting the film in all three aspect ratios so that viewers can compare and choose the version they prefer."

In the same year that the film was released, Budd Schulberg published a novel simply entitled Waterfront based on his script. In the novel Terry Malloy dies. It is more heavily focused on the priest who stands up to the mob, and narrated in first person by him.

In 1984, the film script was adapted to stage by Schulberg, opening on Broadway in November. It had several technical innovations for the time, including lasers, filmlike scenic dissolves and sounds that enveloped the audience. As with Schulberg's earlier novel, the motivations of Father Barry are made more explicit, and the ending is less happy.{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/03/20/theater/on-the-waterfront-adapted-for-stage.html |title=On the Waterfront adapted for stage |work=The New York Times |author=Eleanor Blau |date=March 20, 1984 |access-date=February 23, 2020}} It was revised in 1995 and lasted for only 8 performances, losing $2.6 million, a record on Broadway for a non-musical at the time.{{cite magazine|magazine=Variety|date=May 8, 1995|page=8|title=Broadway's Bombs}}

The Indian films Kabzaa (1988), Ghulam (1998) and Sudhandhiram (2000) are inspired by On the Waterfront.{{Cite web|url=https://www.rediff.com/movies/2003/may/19copy.htm|title=Whose movie is it anyway?|date=19 May 2003|website=rediff.com}}

A 2009 British stage production was directed by Steven Berkoff, who also played Johnny Friendly, with Simon Merrells as Terry. It played at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket in London, after the Nottingham Playhouse and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.{{cite web | url=https://www.britishtheatreguide.info/reviews/waterfrontTRH-rev | title=Theatre review: On the Waterfront at Theatre Royal, Haymarket }}{{cite web | url=https://playbill.com/article/on-the-waterfront-makes-west-end-stage-premiere-jan-28-com-157389 | title=On the Waterfront Makes West End Stage Premiere Jan. 28 }}

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book|last1=Girgus|first1=Sam B.|author-link1=Sam B. Girgus|title=Hollywood Renaissance: The Cinema of Democracy in the Era of Ford, Kapra, and Kazan|location=New York|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1998|isbn=978-0-521-62552-4}}

• Raymond, Allen, Waterfront Priest (New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1955); foreword by On the Waterfront screenwriter Budd Schulberg
• {{cite book |last= Clark |first= Neil G. |title= Dock Boss: Eddie McGrath and the West Side Waterfront |publisher= Barricade Books |location= New Jersey |year=2017 |isbn=978-1569808139}}
• {{cite book |last= Rapf |first= Joanna E. |title= On the Waterfront |publisher= Cambridge University Press |location= Cambridge, UK |year=2003 |isbn=0-521-79400-5}}

{{Commons category|On the Waterfront (1954 film)}}

{{wikiquote}}

• [https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/on_the_waterfront.pdf On the Waterfront] essay by Robert Sklar on the National Film Registry website
• {{AFI film|51286}}
• {{IMDb title|0047296}}
• [https://www.allmovie.com/movie/on-the-waterfront-am6629 On the Waterfront at AllMovie]
• {{TCMDb title|4749}}
• {{Rotten Tomatoes|on_the_waterfront}}
• [http://www.filmsite.org/onth.html filmsite.org]
• [https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/search/google?keys=On%20the%20waterfront Bibliography of articles and books about On the Waterfront] via UC Berkeley Media Resources Center
• [https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/2663-on-the-waterfront-everybody-part-of-everybody-else On the Waterfront: Everybody Part of Everybody Else] an essay by Michael Almereyda at the Criterion Collection
• [https://books.google.com/books/about/America_s_Film_Legacy.html?id=deq3xI8OmCkC On the Waterfront] essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 {{ISBN|0826429777}}, pages 488–490

{{Elia Kazan}}

{{Navboxes

|title = Awards for On the Waterfront

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{{AcademyAwardBestPicture 1941-1960}}

{{GoldenGlobeBestMotionPictureDrama 1951-1960}}

{{National Board of Review Award for Best Film}}

{{New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Film}}

{{Silver Lion (1953–1994)}}

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