Product Details

• Actors: Marlon Brando, Mary Murphy, Robert Keith, Lee Marvin, Jay C. Flippen
• Directors: Laslo Benedek
• Writers: Ben Maddow, Frank Rooney, John Paxton
• Producers: Stanley Kramer
• Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• VHS Release Date: September 26, 1997
• Run Time: 79 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (71 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303402089
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #256,883 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

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

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars He's really just a pussy cat, February 8, 2004

By 

Dennis Littrell (SoCal) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Wild One (DVD)

The "bikers" are like Broadway show extras. The dialogue is embarrassingly unauthentic. Believe me, nobody outside of 42nd Street ever talked like that, daddy-o. The story plays out like some kind of "B" Western with a horse shortage. The "town" even looks like a Western set made over for what somebody in Hollywood thought might be a new genre. There's a café and a saloon rolled into one and a gal working there to catch the eye, and a town posse and a jail and a sheriff (father of the gal) and some "decent citizens" turning into vigilantes, and instead of outlaws we have "hooligans." The bikers do everything but tie their bikes up to the hitching post after roaring into town as though to take over.

Okay, that's one level. On another level this should be compared to Rebel without a Cause (1955) as a mid-century testament to teen angst. Or to Blackboard Jungle (1955) with the fake juvenile delinquency and the phony slang. Marlon Brando as Johnny Strabler, whose claim to fame (aside from being the leader of the pack) is that he stole a second-place biker trophy, stars in a role that helped to launch his career, not that his acting in this film was so great. (He was better in half a dozen other roles, for example., as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire 1951, or as Terry Malloy in On the Waterfront 1954). What stands out here is his tough-guy vulnerability with women: the irresistible little boy playing big. In one sense, this is, despite all the men running around and the macho delirium, something very close to ladies night out. It's a period piece love story, as delicate as a teenager's heart.

Mary Murphy, who in my opinion really steals the show, is at the very center of the drama and the psychology (not to mention that she looks downright yummy in her cashmere sweater and close fitting skirt). She plays Kathie Bleeker, a small town girl whose heart yearns for something--anything--to break the tedium. Along comes Johnny to sweep her off her feet. Only he isn't sure how. Furthermore, she has a problem: although she falls in love with the wild one, she sees right through him. The scene that makes the movie begins with her jumping onto the back of his motorcycle (of course) and, after roaring down the night highway, they retire to what looks like a park. She is about a breath away from what used to be called swooning, but despite her fluttering heart, she sets him straight on who he is and how she feels and why. It's like a woman talking to a wild boy. Then she falls to the ground and just about caresses his motorcycle. It really hits home because she sees through all his pretense and exposes his vulnerability, but is vulnerable herself.

Lee Marvin plays the rival gang leader with a lot of showmanship and Robert Keith plays the ineffectual father. Just about everybody else (including longtime LA sports anchor, Gil Stratton) amounts to an extra.

See this for a glimpse at mid-century psychology as seen through the eyes of Hollywood's seduction machine, and especially for Mary Murphy (running in those heels) who, for whatever reason, never became a star.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 46 years later..., December 16, 2000

By 

"05" (Georgia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Wild One (DVD)

I look at this film today through very different eyes than when I first saw it as a high-schooler in '54.

Of course a lot of it seems hokey now, and with good reason: the world is a far less innocent place than it was in those bucolic, Eisenhower, pre-R&R days.

But when it first came out, it was Hot Stuff. Bad guys, noisy bikes, beer-drinking, and girls in tight sweaters were a big deal to us then.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SUPERB !!! RIVITING 50'S BIKER FILM !!!, June 23, 2007

By 

Felix The CAT (ohio) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Wild One (DVD)

I strongly disagree with the previous negative reviews of "The Wild One".

I suppose if films were made during the pre-Victorian era, we would have reviews bashing them because most (any?) of the current reviewers did not live during those times and are unlikely to understand the dialog from those times!!!

I do agree the dialog will seem a bit "corny" when viewed in 2007, however
having lived through the 1950's, "Hipsters" or "Beatniks" were some of the only "cool" people around and they DID speak this way!

Please don't confuse this film with the actual "corny" "B" sci-fi junk films released in the 50"s

This film is the definitive landmark biker film of the 1950's era.
As high tech as possible using 50's tech.

Superb costumes, music, acting, dialog, editing!! Supreme crisp black & white filming!!

If you are a collector of biker/cult films, as I am, you collection IS NOT complete WITHOUT this movie!!!