The winner of the Best Picture Oscar in 1954, On the Waterfront is a crime drama
about urban violence and corruption amongst longshoremen in the New York docks. Terry
Malloy (Marlon Brando) is a former prize fighter turned longshoreman with links
to mob connected union boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb). After the death of a
dock worker in suspicious circumstances, his sister (Eva Marie Saint) begins
sniffing around and becomes involved with Terry which causes him to be torn
between two worlds and right and wrong.
The film was nominated for an impressive twelve Academy
Awards, winning eight including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor
(Brando) and Best Supporting Actress (Saint). With eight wins it joined Gone with the Wind and From here to Eternity as the most highly
decorated films in history at that time. The film itself was a fairly low
budget expose of the corrupt underworld of the New York docks and bought to light the now common
themes of mob racketeering and deaf and dumb police cooperation.
