Main Cast: Marlon Brando, Mary Murphy, Robert Keith, Lee Marvin, Jay C. Flippen
Release Year: 1954
Country: US
Run Time: 79 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
"What are you rebelling against?" asks someone. "What've you got?" responds surly, leather-jacketed motorcycle punk Marlon Brando. It comes as a disappointment to discover that The Wild One, the quintessential Brando "rebel" film, is at base a traditional "misunderstood youth vs. the nasty system" effort, with a particularly banal finale. Based on a true incident, the film begins with Brando and his motorcyle gang invading a small town after having been kicked out of a cycle competition (but not before stealing the second-prize trophy). Brando's bikers raise hell all day, but some of the townsfolk are shown to be little better than the invaders. Sheriff Robert Keith, whose daughter (Murphy) has gone fond of Brando, finally responds to the bikers' destructiveness by jailing Lee Marvin, leader of a rival gang. When Marvin's buddies goes on a rampage, Brando exhibits his essential decency by safely escorting the sheriff's daughter out of the melee. The townsfolk misunderstand, assuming that Brando intends to rape the girl. He is attacked by a vigilante mob led by town hothead Ray Teal, who uses this excuse to exercise his own sadistic tendencies. Keith breaks up the mob and suggests that Brando leave; he tries to do so, but another angry response from the mob causes him to inadvertently strike and kill a pedestrian. At the subsequent hearing, the girl rushes to Brando's defense. Though grateful for the unexpected kindness, Brando is constitutionally unable to say "thank you" and rides out of town alone. The image of Marlon Brando astride his Triumph has entered movie folklore, just like King Kong on the Empire State Building or the billow-skirted Marilyn Monroe standing over a subway grating; it's too bad that The Wild One isn't a more worthy vehicle for Brando's talents. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
This classic youth rebellion movie was controversial not just for its permissive youth violence, but especially for its lack of a moral solution. Marlon Brando's image was long defined by his iconic role as a motorcycle gang leader. Directed by Laslo Benedek, the film is a cultural turning point, a mid-1950s harbinger of the generational and social unrest which would follow in the 1960s. Easy Rider, the emblematic film of the late 1960s counter-culture, was itself a derivative of The Wild One. As two gangs of hoods terrorize a quiet Midwestern U.S. town, the complacency of post-war, white-bread America is figuratively shattered, and nothing in American culture would ever be quite so placid again. As a film, The Wild One is a brooding soap opera that seems dated in retrospect, but its cinematic impact was slight compared to its cultural reverberations. Brando's stature as the bad boy of his era grew to immense proportions, and the film was banned in Britain for fourteen years (until 1968), as authorities feared that it would incite riots. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
Peggy Maley - Mildred; Hugh Sanders - Charlie Thomas; Ray Teal - Frank Bleeker; John Brown - Bill Hannegan; Will Wright - Art Kleiner; Robert Osterloh - Ben; Robert Bice - Wilson; William Vedder - Simmy; Yvonne Doughty - Britches; Darren Dublin - Dinky; John Tarangelo - Red; Jerry Paris - Dextro; Alvy Moore - Pidgeon; Harry Landers - GoGo; Don Anderson - Stinger; Angela Stevens - Betty; Bruno Ve Sota - Simmonck; Pat O'Malley - Sawyer; Wally Albright - Cyclist; Timothy Carey - Chino Boy; Ted Cooper - Racer; Eve March - Dorothy; Mary Newton - Mrs. Thomas; Gil Stratton - Mouse
Credit
Walter Holscher - Art Director, Laslo Benedek - Director, Al Clark - Editor, Leith Stevens - Composer (Music Score), Morris W. Stoloff - Musical Direction/Supervision, Rudolph Sternad - Production Designer, Hal Mohr - Cinematographer, Stanley Kramer - Producer, Louis Diage - Set Designer, George Cooper - Sound/Sound Designer, John Paxton - Screenwriter, Frank Rooney - Short Story Author
