Product Description

BRANDO BURNS UP THE SCREEN IN THIS '50S CLASSIC AS A MOODY, SUPERCOOL BIKER LEADER WHOSE GANG TERRORIZES A SMALL TOWN.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7286 in DVD
• Brand: SONY PICTURES HOME ENT
• Released on: 1998-11-10
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 79 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
This is the original motorcycle movie, starring Marlon Brando as the brooding leader of a biker gang that invades a small town. The film always looked like one of those synthetic Hollywood ideas of subculture life in the 1950s, which means it looks even more artificial today. But it is an actor's piece more than anything, and toward that end Brando's performance really is an important one in the context of his revolutionary reinvention of film acting during that decade. Directed by Lásló Benedek (Namu, the Killer Whale) and produced by the socially conscious Stanley Kramer. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

He's really just a pussy cat
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.

46 years later...
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.

"Whatta ya got?"
This movie made in 1954 starring Marlon Brando and Lee Marvin was the first of the "biker" movies.

The film loosely depicts the 1947 biker melee that really happened and virtually destroyed the northern California town of Hollister. The script was a little weak for me.

Marlon Brando stars as Johnny, the leader of a biker gang (the Black Rebels) that invades a small town, Wrightsville.

The movie begins where the gang takes a road trip and crashes a motorcycle race and push race officials around. They are eventually thrown out but one of them ends up stealing the first prize trophy and gives it to Johnny, who straps it to his bike like a hood ornament. The gang then rides into Wrightsville where they cruise up and down the main street and end up going to the local bar. The owner of the bar is happy to let the bikers spend their money and does nothing to break up any fights. Johnny likes the girl who works there, but she is the sheriff's daughter but he still tries to impress her with the trophy. Then a rival gang rides into town, headed by Chino (Lee Marvin) and the havoc begins.

The movie's language is severely dated, but I wasn't around then, so I imagine that's how some of the younger people spoke. The movie has a great quote though. When one person asked Johnny (Brando) what he was rebelling about he replied, "Whatta ya got".

This film also was believed to inspire Sonny Barger the undisputed leader of the Hells Angels.

While I'm an avid motorcyclist, I don't condone being in a "biker" gang and I'm not a member of the "1 percenters", so to see bikers destroy a town wasn't entertainment to me especially when there was no motive. The head of the American Motorcycle Assoc. made a statement saying that 99% of motorcyclist are law abiding citizens, the Hells Angels claim that they are the remaining 1 percenters.

But, when you ride a bike it is the most exciting thing you can put between your legs and you get the feeling of total freedom and it's pure fun.

With all its flaws, this film will appeal to you if you love bikes and besides that you get to see the start of biker clothing---the leather jacket.