Dir: Elia Kazan | Cast: Marlon Brando, Lee J Cobb, Karl Malden, Rod Steiger, Eva Marie Saint | US Drama 108’
Having recently drawn the unfriendly attention of the HUAAC for their youthful political indiscretions Elia Kazan and Lee J. Cobb completed their rehabilitation with this apologia for informers produced by Sam Spiegel, which in keeping with the current prevailing zeitgeist portrays trade unions as little more than an arm of organised crime; and for which Kazan duly received a pat on the back in the form of an Academy Award.
Equally deserving was Boris Kaufman’s Oscar for best black & photography; but the question remains: in an early instance of the eccentricity that soon become characteristic of Marlon Brando, whatever possessed him to wear such heavy eyeliner throughout? @RichardChatten
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