On The Waterfront 1954

The Film:

Another one that I've never seen, but know a fair few things about - and I'm looking forward to seeing what all the fuss is about. There are so many films nominated throughout the Oscars this year that I really love - Seven Brides, Sabrina, Rear Window, A Star Is Born, The Glenn Miller Story, Carmen Jones. But the voters went for gritty drama with a message behind it. And so I won't be able to indulge in one of the above films - all of which I've seen several times before! - which is actually a good thing.

On The Waterfront was the third film to that date that won eight Oscars - matching last year's winner, along with Gone With The Wind. It was by far the biggest winner on the night, including causing an upset in the Best Actor category, where Bing was favourite but Brando finally won his first Oscar, after a record four consecutive nominations in the category. It is also notable for having three nominations for Best Supporting Actor (which tells us a lot about the story in itself!) - although none of those nominations brought home the prize.

What I know before watching the film - it's a gritty crime drama set on the docks with gangsters and stuff. Marlon Brando's character "could've been a contender". Eva Marie Saint is pretty much the only woman in the film, so it comprehensively fails the Bechdel Test. And Elia Kazan had been naming names and tried to justify it (successfully? - depends who you ask!) with the narrative of this film. 

The Ceremony:

 The ceremony took place on March 30th 1955, with the same coast-to-coast format as recent years, across the same two venues. It was another Bob Hope year in Hollywood, with Thelma Ritter doing the honours in New York. According to this ticket, the whole thing kicked off at 7pm in LA - which (unless I'm confused here) would mean 10pm in New York. It was broadcast on NBC again, as it would be for several years now.

There was quite a diverse range of nominations this year, with lots of different films being nominated in the big categories. And diversity of a different sort, with Dorothy Dandridge picking up the first Best Actress nomination for an African American. Despite all this, On The Waterfront took eight awards and both Actress awards went to very white, blonde and wholesome women!


Other Notable Winners That Night:

Brando showing Bob just how much of a
contender he is!

On The Waterfront won most of the major awards. Marlon Brando finally got his Oscar - after an unprecedented four consecutive nominations (not even Leonardo diCaprio can beat that - four for Best Actor, five in total, but not consecutive!). Bing was favourite but no one could really begrudge Brando. 

Out of his castmates, only Eva Marie Saint picked up an Oscar, after a canny bit of promotion placed her in the Supporting category and, therefore, not competing with Judy or Grace. The heavyweight trio in Supporting Actor split the vote (as has happened before) and the award went to Edmond O'Brien for The Barefoot Contessa.

The shock of the night was in Best Actress, with Grace Kelly picking up the award that everyone thought would go to Judy Garland. Kelly was in two big films that year - she was great in Rear Window but won for The Country Girl (which I struggled to stay awake through). Some people reckon that this snub is one of the key factors in Judy's subsequent decline. Which is very sad.


Best Song:

How the hell is this not "The Man That Got Away"???? That at least might have helped to save poor Judy.... The winner this year is Three Coins In The Fountain, which is ok I guess, but not even anywhere near the best thing Frankie ever sang. Where as The Man That Got Away is a great song and one of Judy Garland's finest performances of anything ever. Here's both - you decide!

What We Could/Should Have Been Watching:

I know there's only six - if you know the film, you'll know why!

On The Waterfront was definitely a worthy winner - but after that it's all about the Musicals for me this year!

The other nominees were The Caine Mutiny, Three Coins in the Fountain and the aforementioned snoozefest The Country Girl (which maybe I should watch again and rethink?). And also one of my childhood favourite films of all time - Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. As an adult I get how questionable it is for men to kidnap the girls they fancy after just one (sort of) date and keep them captive for several months until they fall in love with them. But that doesn't detract from the singing, the dancing, the amazing technicolor - and all those hunky woodsmen! It's a shame the Dance Direction category went so many years earlier - the barn-raising section is quite wonderful!

Hello, I'm Mrs Norman Maine,
and you're *still* not giving me an Oscar!

A Star Is Born was not even nominated for Best Picture, even though Judy and James both got nominations. I think that's a real shame, as it's a great film. Not really a Musical, more of a drama with some musical numbers. For the second time, Norman Maine and Vicki Lester get Oscars but their real life counterparts miss out.

Our Verdict:

"I coulda beena contender....."

My sort of priest!

I was unsure for about five minutes. It was bleak, there was a fair bit of mumbling, there were several different men leaning on walls, smoking and saying some cliched gangster-type things. Brando looked up and shouted "Joey" in a rather similar way to the way he shouted "Stella" a few years earlier.

And from that point I got drawn in to the whole thing. This is a great film. Great story, brilliant dialogue, subtly clever directing and some absolutely top class acting. All five of the nominated players (which is basically everyone with more than a couple of lines to say) absolutely deserved their nomination. And no wonder that the three Supporting Actors split the vote. I think mine would have gone to Karl Malden, but Rod Steiger was brilliant in a smaller, subtler role.

The story is sort of about the murder of the aforementioned Joey, but is really more about the redemption of his friend Terry (Brando). And even more so it's about corruption vs honesty and bosses vs workers and family loyalty and workers rights and actually quite a lot more.

Pigeons

Terry works on the New Jersey docks (that sounds like the start of a Bon Jovi song!) - like most men in Hoboken. But he has it reasonably cushy because his brother Charlie (Steiger) is right hand man to the corrupt Union boss (Cobb). When Joey dies everyone suspects murder, because he had spoken out against the mob-run Union. Joey's sister Edie pleads with Terry to co-operate with the authorities and tell them what he knows about what has been going on. The local priest (Malden) joins in this plea and shows himself to have no qualms about speaking out against the corruption he witnesses. Charlie is sent to try and ensure that Terry doesn't squeal.

A different sort of contender?

And from there the main focus of the film is not on lots of fights and gang-posturing and further violence (although there is a bit of that - it's very close to home, pretty shocking and entirely relevant to the plot!). Most of the film is actually quite low key and takes a close look at Terry's character, his relationship with his brother (and with others on the docks) and his general worldview.

I won't spoil the film too much by saying what his final decisions are - it isn't all plain sailing but the final outcomes are really satisfying for the viewer.

Along the way we get some great scenes with clever, deep and still authentic dialogue. The cab scene with Brando and Steiger is the most famous. It's even better in context. Both performances are very nuanced and very real. And when you know what the outcome of the conversation is, it's even more meaningful.

It's slightly uncomfortable to think that Kazan was possibly using this film as an allegory for his own actions in the McCarthy witchhunts - partly because he does such a good job of convincing the audience as to what is the right course of action. However, if you take that away then everything else about the film really impressed me - including Marlon Brando. It was worth waiting four years to get his first Oscar for this one!