The Wild One

An angry young Marlon Brando scorches the screen as THE WILD ONE in this powerful '50s cult classic. Brando plays Johnny, the leader of a vicious biker gang which invades a small, sleepy California town. What's Johnny rebelling against? What have you got? - he sneers. The leather-jacketed young biker seems hell-bent for destruction until he falls for Kathie (Mary Murphy), a good girl whose father(Robert Keith) happens to be a cop. Unfortunately for Johnny, his one shot at redemption is threatened by a psychotic rival, Chino (Lee Marvin), plus the hostility and prejudice of the townspeople. All their smoldering passions explode in an electrifying climax!

The Wild One (1953) was directed by Laslo Benedek and based on Frank Rooney's chilling short story "Cyclists' Raid" about a motorcycle gang taking over a small town. Props to Marlon Brando, by then an annual Oscar nominee, for agreeing to re-team with producer Stanley Kramer (who had produced the actor's debut film, The Men) on what is essentially a 79-minute B movie. His reward was to become the premier icon of 1950s rebellion, pioneering the way James Dean, Elvis Presley, and others would follow. The Wild One also introduced biker hipster patter to movie audiences and defined biker fashion for decades to come. So the movie is a cultural milestone--but hardly a cinematic one: it rarely escapes feeling schematic and overcautious in its fear of alienating the public on one hand and glorifying violence on the other. Lee Marvin injects a welcome shot of battery acid as the leader of a rival biker gang, and veteran cinematographer Hal Mohr does yeoman work on dull sets. --Richard T. Jameson