Directed by Elia Kazan • 1954 • United States
Starring Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb
Marlon Brando gives the performance of his career as the tough prizefighter-turned-longshoreman Terry Malloy in this masterpiece of urban poetry. A raggedly emotional tale of individual failure and social corruption, ON THE WATERFRONT follows Terry’s deepening moral crisis as he must decide whether to remain loyal to the mob-connected union boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) and Johnny’s right-hand man, Terry’s brother, Charley (Rod Steiger), as the authorities close in on them. Driven by the vivid, naturalistic direction of Elia Kazan and savory, streetwise dialogue by Budd Schulberg, ON THE WATERFRONT was an instant sensation, winning eight Oscars, including for best picture, director, actor, supporting actress (Eva Marie Saint), and screenplay.
Up Next in Columbia’s Golden Era
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Bonjour tristesse
Directed by Otto Preminger • 1958 • United Kingdom
Starring Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Jean SebergOtto Preminger’s second collaboration with the singular Jean Seberg casts her as Cecile, a hedonistic teenager living on the French Riviera with her similarly decadent father Raymond (David Niven),...
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The Bridge on the River Kwai
Directed by David Lean • 1957 • United Kingdom
Starring William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack HawkinsA highly principled British colonel (Alec Guinness) becomes obsessed with leading a band of World War II POWs to build a bridge at the behest of their Japanese captors in Burma—setting up an explo...
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Suddenly, Last Summer
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz • 1959 • United States, United Kingdom
Starring Elizabeth Taylor, Katharine Hepburn, Montgomery CliftGay panic, incest, and a sprinkling of cannibalism: Tennessee Williams’s one-act southern-gothic shocker gets an appropriately lurid screen adaptation cowritten ...
