Actors need great writing and Budd Schulberg was one great writer. He wrote the screenplays for On the Waterfront in 1954, A Face in the Crowd 1957 both directed by Elia Kazan, and The Harder They Fall, in 1956.
The iconic scene from On The Waterfront with Marlon Brando as Terry Malloy and Rod Steiger as his older brother, Charlie “The Gent” Malloy.
Though his father was a major Hollywood producer in the 1930’s, Budd Schulberg managed to alienate the powers of Hollywood for his first novel “What Makes Sammy Run?” an extremely unfaltering look at the inside of the movie business in 1941 and again made many enemies getting on the reverse black-list due to his co-operation with HUAC (McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committee) in 1951. In the LA Times, there’s an interesting blog post,
“Budd Schulberg: Blinded by his gift” by Carolyn Kellogg discussing these “most significant aspects of his biography.”
On Youtube, there’s an interesting clips from a documentary Hollywood Renegade Budd Schulberg by Aaron Brookner with some cinematography by Albert Maysles (sorry it can’t be embedded). It includes interviews with Spike Lee, Christopher Plummer, Joe Pantoliano, Patricia Neal, Warren Beaty, Mike Tyson, Eve Marie Saint and more.
Below is the first page of the 1954 Oscar winning screenplay, buy your own and support writers. On the Waterfront: The Final Shooting Script
ON THE WATERFRONT
by Budd Schulberg
FADE IN
EXT—ESTABLISHING SHOT—WATERFRONT—NIGHT
Shooting toward a small building (Hoboken Yacht Club) set upon a wharf floating about twenty-five yards off shore. A long, narrow gangplank leads from the wharf to the shore, and on either side of the wharf are large ocean liners which are being unloaded by arc light. In the B.G. is the glittering New York skyline. A great liner, blazing with light, is headed down river. A ferry chugs across to Manhattan. There is a counterpoint of ships’ whistles, some shrill, others hauntingly muted.
CLOSER SHOT—SMALL BUILDING—ON WHARF—NIGHT
It is the office of the longshoremen’s local for this section of waterfront. Coming along the gangplank toward the shore is an isolated figure. He is TERRY MALLOY, a wiry, jaunty, waterfront hanger-on in his late twenties. He wears a turtleneck sweater, a windbreaker and a cap. He whistles a familiar Irish song.
A SERIES OF WALKING SHOTS—TERRY MALLOY—WATERFRONT—NIGHT
Reaching the shore and turning away from the union office. Passing the burned-out piers. Turning up a waterfront tenement street lit by a dim street lamp that throws an eerie beam. He is holding something inside his jacket but we cannot see what it is.
NOTE: MAIN TITLES TO BE SUPERIMPOSED OVER THIS SERIES OF SHOTS
EXT—WATERFRONT STREET—NIGHT
Terry walks along until he reaches an ancient tenement where he stops, hesitates, looks up toward the top of the building, and putting his fingers to his mouth lets out a shrill, effective whistle that echoes
up the quiet street. Then he cups his hands to his mouth and shouts:TERRY
Hey Joey! Joey Doyle!
