1955: On The Waterfront

Director: Elia Kazan

Production Company: Horizon Pictures
Leads: Marlon Brando, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb, Eva Marie Saint

"Hey, you wanna hear my philosophy of life? Do it to him before he does it to you." - Terry Malloy

Setting

Hoboken, New Jersey, USA, 1950s

The Plot 

The film follows Terry Malloy (Brando), an unwilling mobster running the local docks at the, well, waterfront. Once our antagonist meets Edie (Saint) he is torn between two worlds, will he follow the path that's dangerous to leave or follow his heart?

The Review

I haven't seen much in the way of gang genre films...Nuns on the Run and Some Like It Hot probably don't count, Angels with Filthy Souls certainly doesn't either.

It starts off with a bang and keep going from there, as we see both sides of the area run by the Mob; both within the Mob and those outside of it. 

Cobb plays an excellent Mob boss as Joe Friendly, cool calm and collected but also cold and intimidating. Marlon Brando is great but just doesn't cut it as a "bad guy" even when he's trying to be, whether it's the acting or the character I couldn't quite tell.
This was filmed at a time when a man could shut a woman up with a big kiss...and given Edie's quite reasonable reasons for hating him, Brando must have been one heck of a kisser! Given his pick-up line involved sayin how she used to look mess with hair like rope, it bordered on the ridiculous.
Edie was played by Eva Marie Saint, the last living cast member (at time of writing she's almost 100), a key character despite getting such a low billing. She deserved a higher spot honestly.

The Slap

Joe Friendly is the obvious choice, all the bad stuff leads back to Joey. And no, he's not friendly.

1954: From Here to Eternity

Director: Frank Zinnemann

Production Company: Columbia Pictures

Leads: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Frank Sinatra

"Ain't nothing wrong with a solider that ain't the matter with anyone else." - Private Robert E Lee Prewitt

Setting

Hawaii, USA, 1941

The Plot 

The story follows the lives of soldiers in the US Army based in Hawaii during World War II as they train and interact among themselves and in the local town. The main focus is on newly-transferred Robert E Lee Prewitt [Clift] the bugle-playing boxer who is bullied for not wanting to box on the regiment's team, and a blossoming romance between a Sergeant and the Captain's wife. 

The Review

The film spent a decent length of time getting to know the characters and relationships, so when things began to get more interesting I had been drawn in and cared about them (well some of them).
Most of the film was spent on the barracks and in the town's New Congress Club where membership includes snacks, soft drinks and "gentlemanly relaxation with the opposite gender". The "gentlemanly" way naturally included telling a waitress he liked buying beer from her so he can watch her walk away. Charming.

To the best of my recollection this was the first time I've seen Frank Sinatra in a film, he performed very well and I liked his character Maggio very much. He was a decent and genuine friend to anyone at the bottom of the pile, even ending up in the Stockade (Army prison) fighting for someone.

The bullying started very early on and it wasn't always easy to tell who's side some of them were on, Private Prewitt was picked on for not wanting to box on the boxing team, being a trained boxer. A sergeant tripped him up and punished him for falling over, even though overall he was an excellent (if not lippy) soldier once they trained him to stop marching like a "drunk gooney bird".

The storyline was careful to include details of Captain Holmes' infidelity [Philip Ober], even though we never saw it on screen; I guess this would help audiences of the day feel more supportive of his wife's extra-marital romance in what became one of the most famous sex scenes in cinematic history, it was filmed in the 1950s so don't get tooooo excited though ;-)

As the attack on Pearl Harbour didn't happen until right near the end, the film was mainly a behind-the-scenes story of wartime so there wasn't a great deal of war stuff going on.

I have to say I'm a little on the fence with this one, overall I didn't hate it but I felt more could have been done in less time and I was a bit perturbed at one of my favourite characters being killed of as if to say "OK look the film's almost over so let's see what we can do with this guy". 

The Slap

This goes to Sergeant 'Fatso' Judson [Ernest Borgnine] for being a cruel bully, making some of the soldiers' lives unnecessarily difficult.