Film: The Wild One

Receiving billing above the film’s title, Marlon Brando was met with soaring praise for his performance in his fifth feature as the vicious Johnny Straibler, whose leather- and denim-clad outfits became wildly en vogue for rebellious youth eager to self-identify with 1950s counterculture. The original script, deemed by the Production Code Administration to be “a story of violence and lawlessness to such a degree [that it is]… anti-social,” was initially rejected even though its contents were based on a true story of rival biker gangs originally published in Harper’s. Brando confessed in his autobiography Brando: Songs My Mother Taught Me that more than most characters, he deeply identified with Johnny, and that pathos shines through the snarl.

DIRECTED BY: Laszlo Benedek. WRITTEN BY: John Paxton. WITH: Marlon Brando, Mary Murphy, Robert Keith, Lee Marvin. 1953. 79 min. USA. B&W. English. DCP.