The Wild One (1953)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Laslo Benedek

Writers:

John Paxton (writer)
Frank Rooney (novel)
(more)

Release Date:

February 1954 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Marlon Brando! Driven Too Far By His Own Hot Blood!

Plot:

Two rival motorcycle gangs terrorize a small town after one of their leaders is thrown in jail.

Plot Keywords:

Gang | Motorcycle | Rival | Rebel | Sheriff

Cast

Marlon Brando	...	Johnny Strabler / Narrator
Mary Murphy	...	Kathie Bleeker
Robert Keith	...	Sheriff Harry Bleeker
Lee Marvin	...	Chino
Jay C. Flippen	...	Sheriff Stew Singer
Peggy Maley	...	Mildred
Hugh Sanders	...	Charlie Thomas
Ray Teal	...	Uncle Frank Bleeker
John Brown	...	Bill Hamegan
Will Wright	...	Art Kleiner
Robert Osterloh	...	Ben
Robert Bice	...	Wilson
Yvonne Doughty	...	Britches
William Vedder	...	Jimmy
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Wally Albright	...	Cyclist (uncredited)
Don Anderson	...	Stinger (uncredited)
Timothy Carey	...	Chino's Boy #1 (uncredited)
Keith Clarke	...	Gringo (uncredited)
Jim Connell	...	Boxer (uncredited)
Ted Cooper	...	Racer (uncredited)
George Dockstader	...	Cyclist (uncredited)
John Doucette	...	Sage Valley Race Official (uncredited)
Darren Dublin	...	Dinky (uncredited)
Richard Farnsworth	...	(uncredited)
Sam Gilman	...	(uncredited)
Joe Haworth	...	One of Chino's Boys (uncredited)
Harry Landers	...	GoGo (uncredited)
Eve March	...	Dorothy (telephone operator) (uncredited)
Mort Mills	...	Deputy (uncredited)
Alvy Moore	...	Pigeon (uncredited)
Mary Newton	...	Mrs. Thomas (uncredited)
Pat O'Malley	...	Sawyer (uncredited)
Jerry Paris	...	Dextro (uncredited)
Gene Peterson	...	Crazy (uncredited)
K.L. Smith	...	One of Chino's Boys (uncredited)
Angela Stevens	...	Betty (uncredited)
Gil Stratton	...	Mouse (uncredited)
John Tarangelo	...	Red (uncredited)
Bruno VeSota	...	Simmonds (uncredited)
Blackie Whiteford	...	Bystander at Art's Accident (uncredited)

Directed by
Laslo Benedek

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Ben Maddow		uncredited
John Paxton		writer
Frank Rooney		novel "The Cyclists' Raid"

Produced by
Stanley Kramer	....	producer

Original Music by
Leith Stevens

Cinematography by
Hal Mohr

Film Editing by
Al Clark

Production Design by
Rudolph Sternad

Art Direction by
Walter Holscher

Set Decoration by
Louis Diage

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Paul Donnelly	....	assistant director

Sound Department
George Cooper	....	sound engineer

Stunts
Fred Carson	....	stunt double: Marlon Brando (uncredited)
Larry Duran	....	stunts (uncredited)
Richard Farnsworth	....	stunts (uncredited)
Whitey Hughes	....	stunts (uncredited)
Carey Loftin	....	stunts (uncredited)
David Sharpe	....	fight double: Marlon Brando (uncredited)
Tom Steele	....	fight double: Lee Marvin (uncredited)

Music Department
Morris Stoloff	....	musical director
Arthur Morton	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Shorty Rogers	....	music arranger (uncredited)

Other crew
Jim Cameron	....	technical advisor (uncredited)
Willie Forkner	....	technical advisor (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Stanley Kramer Productions

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures (1953) (USA) (theatrical)
• Columbia Pictures (1960) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Columbia TriStar (1999) (Brazil) (DVD)
• RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video (1986) (USA) (VHS)

Also Known As:

Hot Blood (USA) (working title)
The Cyclists Raid (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

79 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (1954) | Finland:K-16 (1966) | Norway:16 (1956) | Norway:(Banned) (1954 - 1956) | Australia:PG | Sweden:15 | UK:PG (video rating) (1988) | UK:R (original rating) (1955) | UK:X (re-rating) (1967) (cut) | USA:Approved (PCA #16106)

Filming Locations:

Columbia/Warner Bros. Ranch - 411 N. Hollywood Way, Burbank, California, USA

Company:

Stanley Kramer Productions

Trivia:

This film was banned in Britain until 1968.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Wire holding handle-bar/throttle can be seen during side view of Johnny's run-away cycle before it hits and kills Jimmy.

Quotes:

Kathie Bleeker: Why are you trying to be so rude?
Johnny: I don't like cops!

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "Milton the Monster: Crumby Mummy/Stage Plight/Fort Fangenstein (#1.23)" (????)

Strong performances in an original take on a persistent theme

An early Brando vehicle, The Wild One has the air of a local genre for the postwar American youth, determined to strike out and be different from the previous generation - despite little idea of what the alternative is. Of course, there is no real genre at work in this sort of movie but the rise of the youthful celebrity typified by Brando and the obvious climate for generational schism brought by the end of the war specifically midwived films such as this.

Brando is very watchable - I particularly like an early sequence, where, despite his determination to defy any expectation, he gets trapped into following a bargirl (Mary Murphy) around like a puppy. His aimlessness is well calibrated, offset with the defining line of the movie: 'What are you rebelling against?' asks a local. 'What have you got?' ripostes Brando's Johnny.

Also popping up on screen is a necessarily over the top Lee Marvin as an amigo/antagonist counterpart to Johnny and a brilliantly ineffectual yet despondently wise town Sheriff, given by Robert Keith. He alone sees the ever-turning circle of young growing up but is rendered powerless by the very circumstance that gives this study in the unassuming, self-education of youth its ring of temporal genre. With equally committed performances across the rest of the ensemble, the film becomes more than a document though. 6/10