Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Original Screenplay 1954

The Contenders:

The Barefoot Contessa
Genevieve
The Glenn Miller Story
Knock on Wood
On the Waterfront (winner)

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Picture 1954

The Contenders:

The Caine Mutiny
The Country Girl
On the Waterfront (winner)
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Three Coins in the Fountain

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Actor 1954

The Contenders:

Humphrey Bogart: The Caine Mutiny
Bing Crosby: The Country Girl
Marlon Brando: On the Waterfront (winner)
Dan O’Herlihy: Robinson Crusoe
James Mason: A Star is Born

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Director 1954

The Contenders:

George Seaton: The Country Girl
William A. Wellman: The High and the Mighty
Elia Kazan: On the Waterfront (winner)
Alfred Hitchcock: Rear Window
Billy Wilder: Sabrina

Contender Once More

Film: On the Waterfront
Format: DVD from DeKalb Public Library on kick-ass portable DVD player

There are movies that sit in places of honor for a variety of reasons. When you look at particular lists like the AFI Top 100 and compare it with other, similar lists, you tend to see a lot of the same movies near the same spots. Citizen Kane, for instance, tends to hover pretty close to the top on these lists. Another film that tends to rank pretty high on most lists of this sort is On the Waterfront. This is a film that could have easily taken the big five had Eva Marie Saint been nominated for Best Actress instead of Best Supporting Actress.

Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) is an ex-prizefighter who now works on the docks in Hoboken, New Jersey. Every day, he and a group of other men walk down to the docks and wait to be hired to help load and unload the ships. Terry tends to get work because his brother Charley (Rod Steiger) is the right-hand man of union boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb). Johnny is insanely corrupt, taking a daily kickback from everyone who is hired as well as a kickback on every crate that is moved on the dock.