---
title: 'On the Waterfront (1954)'
type: 'film'
director: 'Elia Kazan'
released: '1954-07-28'
runtime_minutes: 108
genres:
  - 'Drama'
  - 'Crime'
  - 'Thriller'
countries:
  - 'United States'
canonical: 'https://cinepixo.com/movies/on-the-waterfront-1954'
review_count: 0
imdb: 'https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047296/'
publisher: 'CinePixo'
---

# On the Waterfront (1954)

1954 · 108 min · Drama, Crime, Thriller · United States


## Synopsis

On the Waterfront is a 1954 American crime drama film, directed by Elia Kazan and written by Budd Schulberg. It stars Marlon Brando, and features Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Pat Henning and Eva Marie Saint in her film debut. The musical score was composed by Leonard Bernstein, his only original film score. The black-and-white film was inspired by "Crime on the Waterfront" by Malcolm Johnson, a series of articles published in November–December 1948 in the New York Sun which won the 1949 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting, but the screenplay by Budd Schulberg is directly based on his own original story. The film focuses on union violence and corruption among longshoremen, while detailing widespread corruption, extortion, and racketeering on the waterfronts of Hoboken, New Jersey.

## Credits

- **Director:** [Elia Kazan](https://cinepixo.com/people/elia-kazan)
- **Screenplay:** [Budd Schulberg](https://cinepixo.com/people/budd-schulberg)
- **Original Music Composer:** [Leonard Bernstein](https://cinepixo.com/people/leonard-bernstein)
- **Producer:** [Sam Spiegel](https://cinepixo.com/people/sam-spiegel)
- **Director of Photography:** [Boris Kaufman](https://cinepixo.com/people/boris-kaufman)
- **Editor:** [Gene Milford](https://cinepixo.com/people/gene-milford)

## Cast

- [Lee J. Cobb](https://cinepixo.com/people/lee-j-cobb) as Michael J. "Johnny Friendly" Skelly
- [Leif Erickson](https://cinepixo.com/people/leif-erickson) as Lead Investigator
- [James Westerfield](https://cinepixo.com/people/james-westerfield) as Big Mac
- [Martin Balsam](https://cinepixo.com/people/martin-balsam) as Secondary Investigator
- [Rudy Bond](https://cinepixo.com/people/rudy-bond) as Moose
- [Michael V. Gazzo](https://cinepixo.com/people/michael-v-gazzo)
- [Fred Gwynne](https://cinepixo.com/people/fred-gwynne) as Slim
- [Rod Steiger](https://cinepixo.com/people/rod-steiger) as Charley "the Gent" Malloy
- [Karl Malden](https://cinepixo.com/people/karl-malden) as Father Barry
- [Pat Hingle](https://cinepixo.com/people/pat-hingle) as Jocko
- [Eva Marie Saint](https://cinepixo.com/people/eva-marie-saint) as Edie Doyle
- [John F. Hamilton](https://cinepixo.com/people/john-f-hamilton) as "Pop" Doyle
- [Marlon Brando](https://cinepixo.com/people/marlon-brando) as Terry Malloy

## Criticism on CinePixo

No reviews published yet.

Source: https://cinepixo.com/movies/on-the-waterfront-1954
Film facts: Wikidata (Q211372); synopsis from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Reviews, themes and notes are the work of this site's members.