#On the Waterfront 1954

[savage-kult-of-gorthaur]

A FACE THAT READS LIKE A MAP OF NEVER-ENDING CONFLICT, FRUSTRATION, AND DISTRESS.

PIC INFO: Spotlight on Criterion booklet artwork of Marlon Brando as Terry Malloy, low-level dockworker, failed prizefighter, and pawn in a wharf-side racketeering operation in the American drama film "On the Waterfront" (1954), directed by Elia Kazan.

Artwork by Sean Phillips. Design/art direction by Eric Skillman.

"When he [Marlon] plays those scenes with her, I'm broken up. I break up. That one person should need so much from another person in the way of tenderness and all that. We all do, don't we?"

-- ELIA KAZAN, interviewed by Richard Schickel (quote lifted from the Criterion Collection supplemental DVD booklet)

Sources: http://theartofseanphillips.blogspot.com/2012/11/on-waterfront.html & Facebook (an old post of mine).

[oscarupsets]

Vulture was my only source to present an upset for 1954, so after careful consideration of the other nominees I have chosen to agree with them!

On the Waterfront may not have been close to being a top-grossing film in 1954, but it clearly made an impact. Kazan morphs the relatively simple plot into such a timeless, sophisticated production. The cast all deliver flawless performances, especially (my favorite lesbian icon) Marlon Brando. What's not to like?

The connection to "Going My Way" was also hilarious. I'm not sure I can see it, but whatever!

The Caine Mutiny was the next closest upset I could find for this year. It was the second highest grossing film in the US in 1954 (behind White Christmas, a personal holiday fav), has relatively high current reception, and lost big during the awards season. Both were distributed by Columbia and had strong, recognizable casts.

As with most movies adapted from novels, Edward Dmytryk apparently felt that The Caine Mutiny could have been more successful if it was allowed nearly double the amount of screen time. Even so, I felt that it was extremely slow to get started, with little action occurring prior to the half-way point. Overall, still a solid film.

I also added a couple of slides that I found from different issues of Variety complaining about the possible effects of home televisions on the movie industry! Don't worry Variety, it's 2024 and we're still having this discussion.

Marlon Brando went into the 27th Academy Awards with three consecutive Best Actor nominations and finally left with a win for On the Waterfront. Most notably, Brando beat out Humphrey Bogart, who won against Brando during his first nom in 1951. Brando also took home a Golden Globe, a NYFCC award, and a BAFTA for his performance.

An impressive 5 acting nominations from On the Waterfront follows a strange trend with 1950s Winners - 3 of the 5 Winners from the decade so far have had 5 acting nominations.

The Caine Mutiny walked away from practically every awards show of the year empty handed.

Both films see above average current reception compared to other winners and upsets, except for The Caine Mutiny's uncharacteristically low Metascore. Not sure what that's about.

On the Waterfront was listed as #8 on the 1998 AFI list and #19 on the 2007 list. A line from Marlon Brando is also ranked #3 on the AFI's 100 Movie Quotes list. The Caine Mutiny was a box office hit, but failed to live up to On the Waterfront both in 1954 and now.

Unofficial Review: Definitely not an upset. Plus, I don't think the Oscars could handle having two Best Picture winners about mutinies, let alone a mutiny involving the U.S. Navy.

Both can be found free on archive.org.

[theglitterdome]

Marlon Brando and Eva Marie Saint on the set of On The Waterfront - 1954

[moviesiveseenandwanttoremember]

Elia Kazan’s “On the Waterfront” July 28, 1954.

[kwebtv]

From the Golden Age of Television

Series Premiere

Waterfront - The Skipper's Day - Syndicated - August 21, 1954

Drama

Running Time: 30 minutes

Written by M. Bernard Fox and Jesse L. Lasky Jr.

Produced by M. Bernard Fox

Directed by John Brahm

Stars:

Preston Foster as Captain John Herrick

Lois Moran as May "Mom" Herrick

Kathleen Crowley as Terry Van Buren

Douglas Dick as Carl Herrick

Carl Betz as Dave Herrick

Frank Wilcox as Hank Van Buren

Frieda Inescort as Emily Van Buren

Willie Best as Bill Slocum

George Chandler as Mac Benson

Pinky Tomlin as Tip Hubbard

Jim Hayward as Ward Cowling

Jack Elam as Britt

Lee Van Cleef as Ed

Sanders Clark as Butler

Molly Glessing as Maid

Voltaire Perkins as Ship's Captain

[randomcapz]

On the Waterfront (1954).

[courseyoulovemeyoudontknowme]

Best Eva Marie Saint movies and performances:

1. North by Northwest - Alfred Hitchcock (1959)

2. On the Waterfront - Elia Kazan (1954)

[rwpohl]

die süßesten früchte, franz antel 1954

[jasonsutekh]

On the Waterfront (1954)

A dockworker with a shady boss is pressured into testifying against his crimes but doing so would alienate him from the community.

There’s a good deal of engaging subtext so it’s no wonder the critics gave it acclaim. There’s debate around whether it casts suspicion on Communist practices due to how unions can be abused or if the commentary is judging Capitalism for rigging a system with so many opportunity to exploit workers. Either way the social realism is great for expressing the negotiation through subject matter that was highly controversial at the time.

Even though the love story was fairly crucial to the story, it’s presentation was unhealthy but the narrative framed it as inevitable so it wasn’t to hard to accept regardless of the poor fit. It was odd that the voice of reason, speaking out against hypocrisy, was a priest especially when few of the other characters show any spiritual inclination.

The acting was all consistently strong, the lead in particular had the opportunity to demonstrate a range of emotions with subtlety. The film also effectively developed the protagonist by showing the changeable attitudes of the personal community, the work system at large, as well as that of the criminals; the only notable absence was any real law aside from the odd scene in which the police behave much like the gang members.

Although there was a resolution by the end, several things were left open-ended. For example the resolution applies mainly to work and rather than whether he made up with his girlfriend or the neighbour boy. It also leaves a vacuum in the local power structure waiting for another tyrant to fill it. Even the henchmen are still free and available.

4/10 -It’s below average, but only just!-

-The gloves Edie wears throughout the film and a reference to her being raised by nuns is a subtle suggestion that she’s a virgin, it also reflects Terry’s naivety when he tries one on.

-The German title for the film is “Die Faust im Nacken” or “The Fist in the Neck”.

-The director was heavily criticised at the time, and in retrospect, for informing to the US government on other alleged Communists.

[artedevintage]

'On the Waterfront' - 1954

[filmgifs]

Rod Steiger in ON THE WATERFRONT 1954 | Elia Kazan

[laurapetrie]

ON THE WATERFRONT (1954)

[mydaddywiki]

Marlon Brando

Physique: Heavyset Build Height: 5′ 8¾″ (1.75 m)

Marlon Brando Jr. (April 3, 1924 – July 1, 2004; aged 80) was an American actor and activist. Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential actors of all time, he received numerous accolades throughout his career, which spanned six decades, including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, one Cannes Film Festival Award, and three British Academy Film Awards. Brando is credited with being one of the first actors to bring the Stanislavski system of acting and method acting to mainstream audiences.

In his youth Brando was an electrifyingly handsome and talented star. By the time I took notice of him, he weighed well over 300 pounds but still a handsome and talented star with some men and women still wanting to tap that. Brando's notoriety, his troubled family life, and his obesity attracted more attention than his late acting career.

Married three times, Brando was bisexual and possessed of a voracious libido and there were plenty experiences to report. He was the father to at least 11 children, three of whom were adopted. Among his partners were Burt Lancaster, Laurence Olivier, Tyrone Power, Montgomery Clift, James Dean and Rock Hudson. Hell. He even tapped Paul Newman. With all that, I wonder if he was pitching or catching. Who am I kidding. Brando was a top all the way. Having a balanced diet, his conquests also included Marilyn Monroe, Marlene Dietrich, Grace Kelly, Shelley Winters, Ava Gardner, Hedy Lamarr, Ingrid Bergman, Edith Piaf and Doris Duke (the world’s richest woman at the time). And he had a bizarre, intimate relationship with actor Wally Cox that would last a lifetime.

The last two decades of Brando's life were marked with controversy, and his troubled private life received significant attention. He struggled with mood disorders and legal issues. Brando continues to be respected and held in high regard. On July 1, 2004, Brando died of respiratory failure from pulmonary fibrosis with congestive heart failure at the UCLA Medical Center. Brando was cremated and his ashes were put in with those of Wally Cox. They were then scattered partly in Tahiti and partly in Death Valley.

RECOMMENDATIONS: Don Juan DeMarco (1994) Apocalypse Now (1979) Superman (1978) Last Tango in Paris (1972) The Godfather (1972) Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) One-Eyed Jacks (1961) On the Waterfront (1954) A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)

[librawritesstuff]

Here in America review from The Guardian via Yahoo

(Yahoo link doesn’t work and Guardian paywall)

Here in America: A small London theatre punches above its weight

Real-life political clashes have proved fine dramatic fodder for Britain’s leading playwrights in recent years. Peter Morgan’s 2006 play Frost/Nixon was based on the interviews the former president gave following the Watergate scandal, while in 2021 James Graham’s Best of Enemies dramatised the televised political debates between Gore Vidal and William F Buckley Jr.

Veteran political dramatist David Edgar now turns to the falling-out between playwright Arthur Miller and director Elia Kazan amid the febrile anti-communist mood of 1950s America. When Kazan was subpoenaed and called upon to “name names” by the House Un-American Activities Committee or risk being blacklisted from Hollywood, his decision to inform left Miller disgusted. Kazan had previously directed Death of a Salesman to great acclaim and, as Here in America posits, the pair had been like “brothers”. They didn’t speak for 10 years.

It’s certainly a fascinating and fertile subject matter: this feud between two greats of theatre and film had great artistic consequences. Miller was inspired to write The Crucible about the Salem witch-trials – a clear allegory for McCarthyism and the effects of wrongful accusation – while Kazan’s 1954 film On the Waterfront, where Marlon Brando’s dockworker stands up to a corrupt union by informing, won eight Oscars. Meanwhile, Marilyn Monroe, who both men were involved with, was a central figure during all of this. Miller used his engagement to Monroe as political capital when he himself was hauled in front of the HUAC – a speech that is reenacted compellingly here.

Edgar, who has written more than 60 plays since 1970, has managed to cram all this history – albeit with some not very subtle exposition – into a nifty 80-minute four-hander comprising Michael Aloni’s Art, Shaun Evans’s Gadg (Kazan), Faye Castelow’s Day (Kazan’s wife) and Jasmine Blackborow’s Miss Bauer (Monroe). Imagining the showdown between the two men at Kazan’s house in 1952, Edgar asks questions about betrayal, a theme that plagued Miller throughout his works. Both men had already betrayed their wives through infidelity. Should Kazan stay loyal to communists who had previously betrayed him? Will Miller betray Kazan by publicly denouncing him as a traitor?

Evans’s Gadg seems hesitant about the decision he has to make but withers under pressure from his more opinionated and assertive wife, physically leaning on her for support before he gives testimony to the HUAC. When Art relays his intentions with The Crucible, Day fierily argues with him while Gadg can only look on dumbstruck. And when Art himself has moments of doubt, Blackborow’s Marilyn is there to rally him. “The man I want to be with is the man who tells the truth,” she says.

As for Marilyn, Blackborow deliberately gives us a sketch of the woman, as versions of how Art and Gadg saw her at that time. Similarly to the “flashbacks” in Death of a Salesman, she appears as a memory or as an imagined presence interjecting in the conversation. With Gadg – with whom she had a sexual relationship – she is more sultry, pulling him between her legs and grabbing his face. With Art, she is a thrilling whirlwind but also vulnerable and bashful, gazing up at him with gooey-eyed admiration.

Here, then, is another example of the Orange Tree punching above its weight. The minimal staging devices largely seem sophisticated, with blocks seamlessly shifting the scene from a park bench to a living room to a courtroom. Black leaves litter the stage and the stars of the American flag light up the floor during the hearings. “I had this thought,” Art explains about the Salem witch trials, “that if we came to understand what happened then, then we might start to understand what’s happening in the here and now.” From the banning of books in schools to the links between McCarthy and Trump, the comparisons Edgar invites us to make with the state of modern-day America are all too clear.

The push and pull between the four actors, almost like they’re in a dance, is captivating to watch. The intimate 180-seat Orange Tree space proves the perfect setting for these non-verbal dynamics to play out: a glance of admonishment here, and a raised eyebrow of disbelief there convey meaning beyond the words and breathe life into speeches that might otherwise feel overly dense and stuffy.

[haveyouseenthismovie-poll]

[citizenscreen]

Elia Kazan’s ON THE WATERFRONT premiered in New York City #OnThisDay in 1954.