The most likely route of any "promenade" in Cannes will take you by the docks where beautiful and stunning yachts are moored alongside sailboats, large and small, along with working fishing boats which supply daily the fresh fish of the Mediterranean to the shops, market and restaurants of this beguiling resort city.

Dawn Promenade along the Croisette.

It’s always a pleasant stroll, no matter the time of day – I usually do so in the early morning but often, in the mid-afternoon, I make my way over to the area of the “ancient” and charming carousel to partake of some delicious, French ice cream along with an espresso. Then, it’s to a bench to gaze at the sea, the old harbor and its docks.

The old harbor at Cannes.

Usually the charm of what remains of the old fishing village of Cannes and the curious nature of the passing parade is enough to command my interest and attention; but not today!

I have been rereading “A Life,” Elia Kazan’s autobiography, and last evening read the part dealing with the making of “On the Waterfront.” As I’ve said before, Kazan is my favorite director and Marlon Brando, without question, is, in my view, the outstanding actor of the 20th century. So, to go behind the scenes of the making of this masterpiece is quite thrilling for me.

In any event, thinking about the docks of New York while staring at the docks of Cannes, while somewhat of a leap, is what happened!

Dull, misty horizon dismayed Kazan throughout the making of the movie.

My mind recalled the brutal cold and dull, leaden grey of the New York horizon as it appeared in the movie which, according to Kazan himself, added a heretofore, almost unknown challenge to a film crew and actors used to the control of studio conditions. But, this, one of the first ventures into real, location shooting infused this motion picture with a reality not seen or experienced before. The conditions were difficult; when Brando, or Eva Marie Saint, or Karl Malden looked cold, it was because they were cold – very cold!

But then add the naturalistic acting style of the “Actors’ Studio” (the “method”) along with the brilliance of an unprecedented, New York ensemble cast and you have an electrifying result on the screen.

There’s no time here to discuss the stellar contribution of all of these actors let alone Budd Schulberg’s script nor Leonard Bernstein’s magnificent (and only) movie score. However, I would like to mention the comment of Marlon Brando. He says, in his autobiography, that Kazan was his favorite director because he allowed complete and total improvisation, with the script as a guide – but then, Kazan would step in and, utilizing his considerable talents as an actor, writer and director, would add to, and shape, the final performance.

Thus, in the case of Brando, the result of this collaboration was three Academy Award nominations and one Oscar as Best Actor! (Out of three such efforts with Elia Kazan – “Viva Zapata,” “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “On the Waterfront”)

Stanley Kowalski, Emiliano Zapata, and Terry Malloy.

Anyway, another very pleasant and agreeable afternoon on the docks of Cannes! 

Oh! – the movie – “On the Waterfront.”

Movie Review:

On The Waterfront

Directed by Elia Kazan, Written by Budd Schulberg, Produced by Sam Spiegel
Columbia Pictures 1954
Starring: Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, Rod Steiger, Lee J Cobb, and Karl Malden

So much has been written about this black and white, motion picture masterpiece that I hesitate to add anything other than my own personal reaction to it.

I was 18 years old and living in a Northern Canadian town that based its livelihood principally upon the primary industries of logging and mining. In addition, Port Arthur was also one of the shipping hubs of North America being situated on the Northwest tip of Lake Superior. So I was familiar with rough and tough people – miners, lumberjacks, merchant seamen and dockworkers. In fact, at the time, I worked in a Pulp and Paper mill – on its docks! The “beer parlors” (as the drinking establishments were known) and the red light district of Atlantic and Pacific Avenues were dangerous places full of cantankerous and drunken men looking for excitement and adventures.

Marlon Brando had already sunk into my consciousness with “Viva Zapata” (See Issue #12) but “On the Waterfront” took me into another dimension where my imagination and those images on the “silver screen” melded into what can best be described as a spiritual experience!

Terry escaping with Edie from murder attempt.

Kazan describes “Waterfront” as the story of a confused young man trying to bring integrity and love into his life as he struggles to loose himself from the grips of the New York waterfront mob and its corruption. The unfolding of this story is thrilling and exquisitely tender as the ex-boxer, Terry Malloy, turns his life upside down in his quest for decency and honesty. When Terry (Brando) takes Edie (Saint), the convent girl, into a saloon for her first drink, the delicacy and electricity of the scene is palpable! This scene is crucial as it reveals the ex-fighter/hoodlum Terry to be gentle and approachable, so as to render this search for integrity believable.

Terry and Edie in brilliant scene.

But “On the Waterfront” is full of famous scenes and one (the taxicab scene) is endlessly played and/or parodied. One of the reasons for the film’s overall excellence is that the ambience and realism of the film achieved new heights. For example, Johnny Friendly’s (Lee J. Cobb) small group of thugs packed into his dockside shack is a marvel to behold as Kazan cast three ex-heavyweight challengers (they all had fought Joe Lewis, possibly the most famous Heavyweight Champion) as part of Friendly’s hoodlum retinue. The “mugs” of Two-Ton Tony Galento, Abe Simon and Tami Mauriello fill the screen with unprecedented menace and deadly threat.

Tami Mauriello, Two-Ton Tony Galento, and Abe Simon.

For me, one of the “canards” of movietalk has always been the one around Kazan and “On the Waterfront” that’s represented by this quote from “Time Out”. (A reservation in an otherwise laudatory review.)

“It (Waterfront) is undermined however…by the embarrassing special pleading on behalf of informers presumably from the fact that Kazan and Schulberg named names during the McCarthy witchhunts.”

Well, the audiences found nothing embarrassing about this movie with its touching love story and its exciting depiction of Terry Malloy’s striving for redemption – two central hungers of all humans, as stated by Kazan and experienced by me!

My own reaction to this movie, plus its extraordinary success with audiences, critics and the industry (10 Academy Awards) suggests to me that the charge of Kazan’s self-serving plus the glorification of “ratting” comes from a small but vociferous group of self-satisfied, Hollywood pseudo-liberals who are just plain jealous of the artistry of “On the Waterfront.” What was really embarrassing was when this crowd refused to stand (led by Warren Beatty as I recall) at the moment that Elia Kazan received his Lifetime Achievement Award at the Oscars’ ceremony in 1999!

In 1954, “On the Waterfront” along with “Viva Zapata” the year before, drew me into a lifelong love affair with the work of Marlon Brando that culminated in a humorous, but ultimately fruitless, telephone conversation with him in 1990. I surprisingly was able to reach him in a Paris hotel concerning a never-to-be-realized “project” and he said, “Jim, I’ve got to call you right back, I’m up to my tits in trouble!” 

That was the extent of our intrapersonal relations because, of course, he didn’t call back – but his art has continued to inspire and influence me throughout most all of my life.