00:00If you were to just look at the issues that On the Waterfront explored,
00:03trade unions and racketeering,
00:05you might not expect this film to do well at the box office.
00:09But looking at the stellar performances, the direction and the script,
00:13it all makes sense, especially the critical acclaim that followed.
00:17In his memoir, director Ilya Kazan wrote that to him,
00:20there were a few reasons why the film was a success,
00:23with Marlon Brando being at the top.
00:26If there is a better performance, Kazan wrote,
00:29by a man in the history of film in America, I don't know what it is.
00:34Brando won one of the eight Academy Awards On the Waterfront took home,
00:38and while some blacklisted members of Hollywood saw this film
00:42as Kazan's attempt to justify his actions as an informer,
00:46naming names in a 1952 HUAC hearing,
00:49most of the industry applauded its success.
00:52However, in 1999, when the Academy announced that Kazan was to receive
00:57an Honorary Lifetime Achievement Award,
01:00there was protest, with demonstrators picketing outside the ceremony
01:03and inside, several stars refusing to give him a standing ovation or even applaud.
01:10All right, from one Oscar winner to another,
01:13next on TCM we'll be watching John Huston's 1964 drama
01:17that paired Richard Burton with Deborah Carr and Ava Gardner.
01:23Next on TCM, The Night of the Iguana,
01:27then Green Fire, and later King Solomon's Mines.
01:31TCM digs Stuart Granger, tonight.
