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Elia Kazan's 1954 movie "On the Waterfront" about mob control of the Hoboken, New Jersey, dockyards. The movie was inspired by Malcom Johnson's 24-part series, "Crime on the Waterfront" which ran in the New York "Sun" and won the reporter a Pulitzer Prize in 1949. Playwright Arthur Miller had written an earlier version, called "The Hook," but Columbia Pictures Corporation president Harry Cohn wanted the villains to be depicted as communists rather than gangsters. (In 1932 Cohn had acquired the funds to buy Columbia from his partner by borrowing money from Abner "Longie" Zwillman, known as the "Al Capone of New Jersey" after Dutch Schultz's murder in 1935, and giving Zwillman's girl friend Jean Harlow a 2-picture contract, and he was close to "Handsome Johnny" Roselli, who oversaw the Chicago Outfit's business interests in Hollywood; in 1948 Roselli had made Cohn sign an unknown Marilyn Monroe to a lucrative multi-year contract, and he arranged to have a severed horse's head put in Cohn's bed to persuade him to cast Frank Sinatra in "From here to Eternity.") Miller, who had refused to co-operate with the anti-Communist witch hunts conducted by Committee of Un-American Activities (HUAC) of the House of Representatives, refused to change the focus, so Kazan (who had identified 8 former Communists in the film industry) recruited novelist Budd Schulberg (who had been implicated as a Communist in the HUAC hearings and then became an informer). Every day Schulberg attended the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor's hearings on mob activities on the Hoboken docks during the testimony of whistle-blowing longshoreman Anthony DeVincenzo and spent a month talking to him in waterfront bars; DeVincenzo became the model for Terry Mallow, played in the movie by Marlon Brando. Brando was reluctant to play the role, due to his criticism of Kazan's HUAC testimony, and the part almost went to Sinatra, who grew up in Hoboken and was close to a number of mob figures including his godfather Willie Moretti (the underboss of the Genovese crime family who forced Tommy Dorsey to release him from his big band contract so he could go solo), Chicago boss Sam Giancana, Capone's cousin Rocco Fischetti (with whom he had twice gone to Havana, Cuba, to meet with Charles "Lucky" Luciano, the organizer the Cosa Nostra, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel (one of the founders of Murde, Inc.), and Siegel's successor in Los Angeles, Mickey Cohen. Malloy had been a promising boxer but his brother, Charley "the Gent," had persuaded him to throw a fight so the mob could win a gambling bet. During a dramatic confrontation between the brothers, Terry told Charley, "I coulda' been somebody. I coulda' been a contender. Instead of a bum, which is what I am – let's face it." The movie won an Academy Award for Best Motion Picture, Kazan one for Best Director, Brando for Best Actor, Schulberg for Best Screenplay; Eva Marie saint was Best Supporting Actress, Lee j. Cobb, Karl Malden, and Rod Steiger were all nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Leonard Bernstein for his score, and 3 others won technical Oscars (for art direction/set decoration, cinematography, and editing).
Elia Kazan's 1954 movie "On the Waterfront" about mob control of the Hoboken, New Jersey, dockyards. The movie was inspired by Malcom Johnson's 24-part series, "Crime on the Waterfront" which ran in the New York "Sun" and won the reporter a Pulitzer Prize in 1949. Playwright Arthur Miller had written an earlier version, called "The Hook," but Columbia Pictures Corporation president Harry Cohn wanted the villains to be depicted as communists rather than gangsters. (In 1932 Cohn had acquired the funds to buy Columbia from his partner by borrowing money from Abner "Longie" Zwillman, known as the "Al Capone of New Jersey"
ReplyDeleteafter Dutch Schultz's murder in 1935, and giving Zwillman's girl friend Jean Harlow a 2-picture contract, and he was close to "Handsome Johnny" Roselli, who oversaw the Chicago Outfit's
business interests in Hollywood; in 1948 Roselli had made Cohn sign an unknown Marilyn Monroe to a lucrative multi-year contract, and he arranged to have a severed horse's head put in Cohn's bed to persuade him to cast Frank Sinatra in "From here to Eternity.") Miller, who had refused to co-operate with the anti-Communist witch hunts conducted by Committee of Un-American Activities (HUAC) of the House of Representatives, refused to change the focus, so Kazan (who had identified 8 former Communists in the film industry) recruited novelist Budd Schulberg (who had been implicated as a Communist in the HUAC hearings and then became an informer). Every day Schulberg attended the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor's hearings on mob activities on the Hoboken docks during the testimony of whistle-blowing longshoreman Anthony DeVincenzo and spent a month talking to him in waterfront bars; DeVincenzo became the model for Terry Mallow, played in the movie by Marlon Brando. Brando was reluctant to play the role, due to his criticism of Kazan's HUAC testimony, and the part almost went to Sinatra, who grew up in Hoboken and was close to a number of mob figures including his godfather Willie Moretti (the underboss of the Genovese crime family who forced Tommy Dorsey to release him from his big band contract so he could go solo), Chicago boss Sam Giancana, Capone's cousin Rocco Fischetti (with whom he had twice gone to Havana, Cuba, to meet with Charles "Lucky" Luciano, the organizer the Cosa Nostra, Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel (one of the founders of Murde, Inc.), and Siegel's successor in Los Angeles, Mickey Cohen. Malloy had been a promising boxer but his brother, Charley "the Gent," had persuaded him to throw a fight so the mob could win a gambling bet. During a dramatic confrontation between the brothers, Terry told Charley, "I coulda' been somebody. I coulda' been a contender. Instead of a bum, which is what I am – let's face it." The movie won an Academy Award for Best Motion Picture, Kazan one for Best Director, Brando for Best Actor, Schulberg for Best Screenplay; Eva Marie saint was Best Supporting Actress, Lee j. Cobb, Karl Malden, and Rod Steiger were all nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Leonard Bernstein for his score, and 3 others won technical Oscars (for art direction/set decoration, cinematography, and editing).