ON THE WATERFRONT boiled over 1954 with stark urban drama and a street load of Method acting, the ‘be glad you don’t work–or live–there’ (sorry, Hoboken) motif. The then-fresh angry anguish of the non-glamorpuss thespians signified that ‘Truth!’ had arrived in the same year as White Christmas, There’s No Business Like Show Business and Creature From The Black Lagoon.

Tony Galento and Tami Mauriello: “Definitely!”

Hoboken, New Jersey. Amiable and aimless, ex-boxer ‘Terry Malloy’ (Marlon Brando) has his mettle challenged after the murder of a fellow dockworker by thugs of corrupt union boss ‘Johnny Friendly’ (Lee J. Cobb). The local priest, ‘Father Pete Barry’ (Karl Malden), tries to stir Terry to inform on the racketeers, but more telling pressure comes from gentle ‘Edie Doyle’ (Eva Marie Saint, feature debut), the dead man’s sister who sees more in Terry than his rough exterior. Terry’s older brother ‘Charley’ (Rod Steiger, 29, second film) is Friendly’s legal advisor.

The bleak look imparted by Boris Kaufman’s black & white cinematography of the chilly, dismal locations (Hoboken’s piers, bars, alleys and slums) and a gallery of cynical, hard-bitten faces carries an aura of quasi-documentary authenticity. Leonard Bernstein’s modernistic symphonic score (a percolating hint of his coming triumph with West Side Story) adds both jarring immediacy and an undercoat of lamentation.

Brando’s signature charisma is tailor-made for the confused Malloy, although Budd Schulberg’s script presents some roadblocks: Terry’s supposed to be the next thing to a punch drunk palooka yet he occasionally drops kernels of insight that don’t gel, and his ‘sensitive ape’ appeal to Saint’s good girl is shaky, particularly in light of what happened to her brother. Malden takes his fiery clergyman a tad too brassy. Steiger keeps it in check refraining from any temptation for bombast. That’s not so with fire-eating Cobb: was this the part that started him on his decade-long penchant for bellowing? Besting the men is Saint (nearly the literal ‘saint’ of the piece), who is honest to a fault. At 29, she was ten years older than her character, but her performance is so felt, un-mannered and sincere that you overlook the writing’s questionable insistence on Edie’s blinkered innocence. The forceful guys have the showier roles and ‘act’ up a gale, but Saint, no less emotional, feels more centered and real. The famous cab scene with Brando and Steiger is part of American (heck, World) cinema folklore and its crushingly elegant simplicity and pain allowed nightclub, TV and couch-bound impressionists play-dough for decades.

Made in 36 days for $910,000, director Elia Kazan’s social realism knockout (and self-absolving backhand to his ethical detractors) won eight of its dozen Oscar nominations, nabbing Best Picture, Director, Actor (Brando), Supporting Actress (Saint), Story, Art Direction, Cinematography and Film Editing, missing out on three Supporting Actor bids (Cobb, Malden, Steiger) and Music Score. We’d quibble with art direction, which ought to have gone to Sabrina.

Taking a cut from ticket-buyers: Cogerson places its haul 20th for the year (humorously wedged between Demetrius And The Gladiators and The Long, Long Trailer) with a $12,000,000 gross; other sources say $9,600,000.

Friendly’s unfriendly friends include former heavyweight contenders Tony Galento, Tami Mauriello (“Definitely!”) and Abe Simon, all of whom had battled Joe Louis. On hand are Leif Erickson, Pat Henning, James Westerfield, John F. Hamilton and Rudy Bond. Bonus mugs in uncredited bits: Martin Balsam (34, debut), Pat Hingle (29, debut), Fred Gwynne (27, debut), Nehemiah Persoff (34, 2nd part), Michael V. Gazzo (30, debut). 108 minutes.

Brando in his autobio: “On the day (Kazan) showed me the completed picture, I was so depressed by my performance I got up and left the screening room. I thought I was a huge failure, and walked out without a word to him. I was simply embarrassed for myself.”

Curiously, Brando’s other 1954 picture, Désirée, a costume period piece where he played Napoleon, out-grossed On The Waterfront. Today, the plodding Désirée is a trivia item.

“The Hollywood Reporter” offered Saint a compliment (of sorts) chirping her “haggard loveliness seems to have sprung from between the actual cobblestones of the docks. It makes the prettiness of the average starlet seem trivial.” Uh, thanks...?

IMHO—among all the colorful scenery chompers, next to Saint the most unaffected performance comes from new-face-on-the-pier Martin Balsam.