Terry Malloy
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On the Waterfront is a 1954 American crime drama film, directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. It stars Marlon Brando, and features Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Pat Henning and Eva Marie Saint in her film debut. The musical score was composed by Leonard Bernstein.
- Overview
- Production notes and credits
- Cast
- Academy Award nominations (* denotes win)
On the Waterfront, American dramatic film, released in 1954, that presented a powerful account of union corruption and was directed by Elia Kazan. The movie, which featured one of Marlon Brando’s most memorable performances, was a critical and popular success, winning eight Academy Awards, including that for best picture.
(Read Martin Scorsese’s Britannica essay on film preservation.)
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As the movie begins, Terry Malloy (played by Brando), a former boxer turned dockworker, leaves the waterfront office of union boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) with instructions to lure another longshoreman, Joey Doyle (Ben Wagner), to the roof of Joey’s apartment building. Joey, who was planning to testify before the Waterfront Crime Commission, is later thrown from the roof by Friendly’s henchmen. A shocked Terry says that he thought that Joey would be talked to, not killed. A crowd gathers around Joey’s body. His father, Pop Doyle (John Hamilton), says that he told Joey not to talk. Joey’s distraught sister, Edie (Eva Marie Saint), wants to know who killed him. Father Barry (Karl Malden) administers last rites.
The next morning, Terry attends to his pigeons at his rooftop dovecote before heading to the docks. At the waterfront, Pop Doyle gives Joey’s jacket to Kayo Dugan (Pat Henning). Terry is later approached by two men from the crime commission, Glover (Leif Erickson) and Gillette (Martin Balsam), who ask about Joey’s death. Terry claims not to know anything. Father Barry is also at the docks, and after observing the unfair distribution of work assignments, he suggests that those who dislike the system meet at his church. At the request of his brother, Charley (Rod Steiger), who is Friendly’s lawyer and right-hand man, Terry attends the gathering. There Father Barry urges the assembled dockworkers to stand up to Friendly, but the meeting ends when Friendly’s henchmen attack the church. Terry leads Edie to safety, and Kayo then promises Father Barry that he will testify.
•Studios: Columbia Pictures Corporation and Horizon Pictures
•Director: Elia Kazan
•Writer: Budd Schulberg
•Music: Leonard Bernstein
•Marlon Brando (Terry Malloy)
•Lee J. Cobb (Johnny Friendly)
•Karl Malden (Father Barry)
•Rod Steiger (Charley Malloy)
•Lead actor* (Marlon Brando)
•Supporting actor (Lee J. Cobb)
•Supporting actor (Karl Malden)
•Supporting actor (Rod Steiger)
•Supporting actress* (Eva Marie Saint)
•Art direction (black-and-white)*
- Pat Bauer
With Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger. An ex-prize fighter turned New Jersey longshoreman struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses, including his older brother, as he starts to connect with the grieving sister of one of the syndicate's victims.
- (167K)
- Crime, Drama, Thriller
- Elia Kazan
- 1954-06-22
Mar 21, 1999 · The film was based on the true story of a longshoreman who tried to overthrow a corrupt union. In life, he failed; in the film, he succeeds, and today the ending of “On the Waterfront” feels too stagy and upbeat.
On the Waterfront opens by introducing the small group of corrupt racketeers that run the docks of Hoboken, New Jersey, across the river from Manhattan. Terry Malloy, an inarticulate former prizefighter in his late twenties, serves as a petty errand boy for the union head, Johnny Friendly.
When a longshoreman is murdered before he can testify about Friendly's control of the Hoboken waterfront, Terry teams up with the dead man's sister Edie and the streetwise priest Father Barry to testify himself, against the advice of Friendly's lawyer, Terry's older brother Charley.
Jul 26, 2023 · Unironically, On the Waterfront is itself a story about informants: one of its writers was Budd Schulberg, who’d also given names to HUAC. Operating on shaky logic, he and Kazan intended On...
