On the Waterfront Page #3

Synopsis: Dockworker Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) had been an up-and-coming boxer until powerful local mob boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) persuaded him to throw a fight. When a longshoreman is murdered before he can testify about Friendly's control of the Hoboken waterfront, Terry teams up with the dead man's sister Edie (Eva Marie Saint) and the streetwise priest Father Barry (Karl Malden) to testify himself, against the advice of Friendly's lawyer, Terry's older brother Charley (Rod Steiger).
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Production: Sony Pictures
  Won 8 Oscars. Another 21 wins & 9 nominations.
 
IMDB:
8.2
Metacritic:
88
Rotten Tomatoes:
98%
NOT RATED
Year:
1954
108 min
3,723 Views


EXT—LANDING BELOW TENEMENT ROOF—NIGHT

Forming a circle around Joey are KAYO NOLAN, a hard little nut of a

man; TOMMY COLLINS, a young longshoreman friend of Joey's; LUKE, a

giant Negro; MOOSE, a good-natured, hulking longshoreman; and others.

The shot favors POP DOYLE, a short , stocky man with a small potbelly.

POP:

(to someone running up)

I kept tellin' him: don't say nothin',

keep quiet, you'll live longer.

POLICE SERGEANT:

(to another cop)

Tell the ambulance to hurry.

SHOT OF ONLOOKERS—ROOFTOP—NIGHT

Including a hard-faced longshoreman, a careworn woman in her middle

thirties (Mrs. Collins) and Mutt.

LONGSHOREMAN:

He ain't gonna need no ambulance.

FATHER BARRY, a lean, tough, West Side priest, climbs a wooden fence

and approaches the crowd.

FATHER BARRY:

(roughly)

One side. Le'me through!

MEDIUM SHOT—MRS. COLLINS, MUTT—ROOFTOP—NIGHT

MRS. COLLINS

(to Father Barry as he passes)

Same thing they did to my Andy five years ago.

CLOSE ON BODY OF JOEY—TENEMENT LANDING—NIGHT

Father Barry prays. A police sergeant turns to Pop.

SERGEANT:

You're Pop Doyle, aren't you, the boy's father?

POP:

(angrily)

That's right.

SERGEANT:

He fell over backward from the roof—

like he was pushed. Any ideas?

POP:

(aggressively)

None.

MRS. COLLINS

(coming forward)

He was the one longshoreman with guts

enough to talk to them crime investigators.

Everybody knows that.

POP:

(wheeling angrily and pushing her away)

Who asked you. Shut your trap.

If Joey'd taken that advice he wouldn't be—

(starts to crack up)

MRS. COLLINS

(protesting)

Everybody know that...?

POP:

I said shut up!

SERGEANT:

Look, I'm an honest cop. Give me

some leads and I'll...

Pop stands silently, choked with grief.

KAYO NOLAN:

Listen— don't bother him. Right, Moose?

MOOSE:

(nodding)

One thing I learned— all my life on the waterfront—

dont ask no questions— don't answer no questions.

Unless you... .

(looks at the body and stops)

LUKE:

(reverently)

He was all heart, that boy.

Enough guts for a regiment.

POP:

(in a bitter rage)

Guts— I'm sick of guts. He gets a book in the pistol

local and right away he's gonna be a hero. Gonna

push the mob off the dock singlehanded... .

FATHER BARRY:

(comfortingly)

Take it easy, Pop. I know it's rough

but time and faith are great healers... .

CLOSE—ON EDIE—TENEMENT LANDING—NIGHT

Joey's sister, a fresh-faced, sensitive young Irish girl who has been

kneeling over the body. She looks up and around at the Father in bitter

grief.

EDIE:

Time and faith... . My brother's dead and you

stand there talking drivel about time and faith.

FATHER BARRY:

(taken aback)

Why Edie, I—

EDIE:

(plunging on)

How could anyone do this to Joey. The best in the

neighborhood... . everybody said it, not only me.

Who'd want to harm Joey? Tell me— who? -- who?

Rate this script:3.7 / 3 votes

Budd Schulberg

Budd Schulberg (March 27, 1914 – August 5, 2009) was an American screenwriter, television producer, novelist and sports writer. He was known for his 1941 novel, What Makes Sammy Run?, his 1947 novel The Harder They Fall, his 1954 Academy Award-winning screenplay for On the Waterfront, and his 1957 screenplay for A Face in the Crowd. more…

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Submitted by aviv on November 01, 2016

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