MAGNET contributing writer Jud Cost is sharing some of the wealth of classic films he’s been lucky enough to see over the past 40 years. Trolling the backwaters of cinema, he has worked up a list of more than 100 titles—from the ’20s through the ’80s—that you may have missed. A new selection, all currently available on DVD, appears every week.
On The Waterfront (1954, 108 minutes)
A scathing portrayal of greed and corruption in a local dockworkers’ union, On The Waterfront was released the same year the Army/McCarthy congressional hearings shone a national television spotlight on the maniacal pursuit of communists by Sen. Joseph McCarthy. It’s not an over-simplification to say that both helped reset America’s moral compass.
Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando), an ex-boxer, has been ordered by Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb), local boss of a New York City longshoremen’s union, to get Joey Doyle up on the roof of his building.”Joe Doyle!” shouts Terry in front of Doyle’s tenement. “Whaddaya want?” hollers Doyle from his third-floor window. “I got one of your birds. I recognized him by the band,” says Terry. “Yeah, it must be Danny Boy. I lost him in the last race,” says Doyle. “He flew into my coop. Ya want him?” shouts Terry. “I gotta watch myself these days, y’know what I mean?” says Doyle. “I’ll take him up to your loft,” says Terry. “OK, I’ll see ya on the roof.”
“How goes it?” asks Terry’s brother Charley (Rod Steiger), Friendly’s consigliere in a camel-hair overcoat, standing around the corner with two of Friendly’s underlings. “He’s up on the roof,” reports Terry as a blood-chilling scream pierces the night air. “I think somebody just fell off the roof,” says one of Friendly’s goons. “He was gonna sing to the Crime Commission.” “I thought they was just gonna talk to him, get him to dummy up,” says a distraught Terry. “He was a canary. Maybe he could sing, but he couldn’t fly,” laughs the other thug.
A cop speaks to a crowd gathering around Doyle’s body on the sidewalk. “Looks like he fell off the roof, or maybe he was pushed,” says the officer. “Anybody got any ideas?” The local Catholic priest pulls Joey’s sister away from the body. “Time and faith are great healers,” comforts Father Barry (Karl Malden). “My brother was the best kid in the neighborhood,” sobs Edie (Eva Marie Saint). “I want to know who killed my brother!”
“Hey Terry, count this,” says Friendly, tossing him a wad of cash from today’s dock crew shape-up. “It develops the mind.” “What mind?” says Mac (James Westerfield), the dock foreman. “I lost count,” says Terry, distracted. “OK, forget it, Einstein,” laughs Friendly. “The only arithmetic he got was hearing the referee count to 10,” says Mac. “You’re not too funny today, fat man!” bristles Terry. “Hey, what gives with our boy, Charley?” asks Friendly. “It’s the Joey Doyle thing,” replies Charley. Friendly’s veneer of affability vanishes. “I can’t afford to lose this deal because of one lousy little cheese-eater, that Doyle bum!” he bellows. “You got a real friend here,” Charley reminds his brother as Terry heads out the door. “Don’t forget it.”
