KNOW THE FILM-MAKER'S LANGUAGE:

There are several terrific on-line glossaries that explain the key terms used in film-making and script writing.

The AMC Channel maintains a solid dictionary of terms:  http://www.filmsite.org/filmterms1.html

The website MOVIE OUTLINES also maintains a very fine glossary of screenwriting terms and film-making definitions:  http://www.movieoutline.com/articles/a-glossary-of-screenwriting-terms-and-filmmaking-definitions.html

SCREENPLAY STRUCTURE

[© David Trottier (1998). The Screenwriter's Bible: A Complete Guide to Writing, Formatting, and Selling Your Script. Silman-James Press. ISBN 1-879505-44-4. - Paperback]

     Fundamentally, the screenplay is a unique literary form. It is like a musical score, in that it is intended to be interpreted on the basis of other artists' performance, rather than serving as a "finished product" for the enjoyment of its audience. For this reason, a screenplay is written using technical jargon and tight, spare prose when describing stage directions. Unlike a novel or short story, a screenplay focuses on describing the literal, visual aspects of the story, rather than on the internal thoughts of its characters. In screenwriting, the aim is to evoke those thoughts and emotions through subtext, action, and symbolism.

     There are several main screenwriting theories which help writers approach the screenplay by systematizing the structure, goals and techniques of writing a script. The most common kinds of theories are structural. Screenwriter William Goldman is widely quoted as saying "Screenplays are structure".

Three-act structure

     Most screenplays have a three-act structure, following an organization that dates back to Aristotle's Poetics. The three acts are setup (of the location and characters), confrontation (with an obstacle), and resolution (culminating in a climax and a dénouement). In a two-hour film, the first and third acts both typically last around 30 minutes, with the middle act lasting roughly an hour.

     In Writing Drama, French writer and director Yves Lavandier shows a slightly different approach. As most theorists, he maintains that every human action, whether fictitious or real, contains three logical parts: before the action, during the action, and after the action. But since the climax is part of the action, Yves Lavandier considers the second act must include the climax, which makes for a much shorter third act than is found in most screenwriting theories.

     Besides the three act structure, one could also use four or even five acts in a screenplay, though these would be used to suit longer stories than the classic 120 page format.

The Hero's Journey

     The hero's journey, also referred to as the monomyth, is an idea formulated by noted mythologist Joseph Campbell. The central concept of the monomyth is that a pattern can be seen in stories and myths across history. Campbell defined and explained that pattern in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949).

Campbell's insight was that important myths from around the world which have survived for thousands of years, all share a fundamental structure. This fundamental structure contains a number of stages, which includes

1. a call to adventure, which the hero has to accept or decline,
2. a road of trials, regarding which the hero succeeds or fails,
3. achieving the goal or ("boon"), which often results in important self-knowledge,
4. a return to the ordinary world, as to which, again, the hero can succeed or fail, and
5. application of the boon, in which what the hero has gained can be used to improve the world.

     Later, screenwriter Christopher Vogler refined and expanded the Hero's Journey for the screenplay form in his book, The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers (1993).

Syd Field's Paradigm

     Screenwriting guru Syd Field wrote the seminal book Screenplay, and posited a new theory, which he called the Paradigm. Field noticed that in a 120-page screenplay, Act Two was notoriously boring, and was also twice the length of Acts One and Three. He also noticed that an important dramatic event usually occurred at the middle of the picture, which implied to him that the middle act was actually two acts in one. So the Three Act Structure is notated 1, 2a, 2b, 3, resulting in Aristotle's Three Acts divided into four pieces.

     Field also introduced the idea of Plot Points into screenwriting theory. Plot Points are important structural functions that happen in approximately the same place in most successful movies, like the verses and choruses in a popular song. In subsequent books, Field has added to his original list, and students of his like Viki King and Linda Seger have added to the list of Plot Points. Here is a current list of the major Plot Points that are congruent with Field's Paradigm:

Opening Image: The first image in the screenplay should summarize the entire film, especially its tone. Often, writers go back and redo this as the last thing before submitting the script.

Inciting Incident: Also called the catalyst, this is the point in the story when the Protagonist encounters the problem that will change their life. This is when the detective is assigned the case, where Boy meets Girl, and where the Comic Hero gets fired from his cushy job, forcing him into comic circumstances.

Plot Point 1: The last scene in Act One, Turning Point One is a surprising development that radically changes the Protagonist's life, and forces him to confront the Opponent. In Star Wars, this is when Luke's family is killed by the Empire. He has no home to go back to, so he joins the Rebels in opposing Darth Vader.

Pinch 1: A reminder scene at about 3/8 the way through the script (halfway through Act 2a) that brings up the central conflict of the drama, reminding us of the overall conflict. For example, in Star Wars, Pinch 1 is the Stormtroopers attacking the Millennium Falcon in Mos Eisley, reminding us the Empire is after the stolen plans to the Death Star R2-D2 is carrying and Luke and Ben Kenobi are trying to get to the Rebel Alliance (the main conflict).

Midpoint: An important scene in the middle of the script, often a reversal of fortune or revelation that changes the direction of the story. Field suggests that driving the story towards the Midpoint keeps the second act from sagging.

Pinch 2: Another reminder scene about 5/8 through the script (halfway through Act 2b) that is somehow linked to Pinch 1 in reminding the audience about the central conflict. In Star Wars, Pinch 2 is the Stormtroopers attacking them as they rescue the Princess in the Death Star. Both scenes remind us of the Empire's opposition, and using the Stormtrooper attack motif unifies both Pinches.

Plot Point 2: A dramatic reversal that ends Act 2 and begins Act 3, which is about confrontation and resolution. Sometimes Turning Point Two is the moment when the Hero has had enough and is finally going to face the Opponent. Sometimes, like in Toy Story, it's the low-point for the Hero, and he must bounce back to overcome the odds in Act 3.

Showdown: About midway through Act 3, the Protagonist will confront the Main Problem of the story and either overcome it, or come to a tragic end.

Resolution: The issues of the story are resolved.

Tag: An epilogue, tying up the loose ends of the story, giving the audience closure. This is also known as denouement. In general, films in recent decades have had longer denouements than films made in the 1970s or earlier.

The sequence approach

     The sequence approach to screenwriting, sometimes known as "eight-sequence structure", is a system developed by Frank Daniel, while he was the head of the Graduate Screenwriting Program at USC. It is based in part on the fact that, in the early days of cinema, technical matters forced screenwriters to divide their stories into sequences, each section the length of a reel (about ten minutes).    
     The sequence approach mimics that early style. The story is broken up into eight 10-15 minute sequences. The sequences serve as "mini-movies, each with their own compressed three-act structure. The first two sequences combine to form the film's first act". The next four create the film's second act. The final two sequences complete the resolution and dénouement of the story. Each sequence's resolution creates the situation which sets up the next sequence.  [See: Gulino, Paul Joseph: "Screenwriting: The Sequence Approach", pg 3. Continuum, 2003.]

Screenwriting in the entertainment industry

[See: Lydia Willen and Joan Willen, How to Sell your Screenplay, pg 242. Square One Publishers, 2001.   <AND>  Skip Press, The Ultimate Writer's Guide to Hollywood, pg xiii. Barnes and Noble Books, 2004.]

The act of screenwriting takes many forms across the entertainment industry. Often, multiple writers work on the same script at different stages of development with different tasks. Over the course of a successful career, a screenwriter might be hired to write in a wide variety of roles.

Some of the most common forms of screenwriting jobs include:

Spec script writing

            Spec scripts are feature film or television show scripts written on speculation, without the commission of a film studio, production company, or tv network. The spec script is a Hollywood sales tool. The vast majority of scripts written each year are spec scripts, but only a small percentage make it to the screen. A spec script is usually a wholly original work, but can also be an adaptation.

            In television writing, a spec script is a sample teleplay written to demonstrate the writer's knowledge of a show and ability to imitate its style and conventions. It is submitted to the show's producers in hopes of being hired to write future episodes of the show. Budding screenwriters attempting to break in to the business generally begin by writing one or more spec scripts.

            Although writing "spec scripts" is part of any writer's career, the Writers Guild of America forbids members to write "on speculation." The distinction is that a "spec script" is written as a sample by the writer on his or her own; what is forbidden is writing a script for a specific producer without a contract.

Feature assignment writing

            Scripts written on assignment are screenplays created under contract with a studio, production company, or producer. These are the most common assignments sought after in screenwriting. A screenwriter can get an assignment either exclusively or from "open" assignments. A screenwriter can also be approached and offered an assignment. Assignment scripts are generally adaptations of an existing idea or property owned by the hiring company, but can also be original works based on a concept created by the writer or producer.

Rewriting and script doctoring

            Most produced films are rewritten to some extent during the development process. Frequently, they are not rewritten by the original writer of the script. Many established screenwriters, as well as new writers whose work shows promise but lacks marketability, make their living rewriting scripts.

            When a script's central premise or characters are good but the script is otherwise unusable, a different writer or team of writers is contracted to do an entirely new draft, often referred to as a "page one rewrite." When only small problems remain, such as bad dialogue or poor humor, a writer is hired to do a "polish" or "punch-up".

            Depending on the size of the new writer's contributions, screen credit may or may not be given. For instance, in the American film industry, credit to rewriters is given only if 50% or more of the script is substantially changed. These standards can make it difficult to establish the identity and number of screenwriters who contributed to a film's creation.

            When established writers are called in to rewrite portions of a script late in the development process, they are commonly referred to as script doctors. Prominent script doctors include Steve Zaillian, William Goldman, Robert Towne, Mort Nathan, Quentin Tarantino and John Truby. Many up and coming screenwriters work as ghost writers.

SCREENWRITER:  John Patrick Shanley (b. 1950)

In his early years as an off-Broadway playwright, John Patrick Shanley was celebrated for his intense dialogue and for his dysfunctional young New Yorkers in search of identity and love. His big-screen, romantic comedy version of his storytelling was the hit movie "Moonstruck" (1987), which earned the Irish-American an Academy Award for his script. He stayed in Hollywood for a number of years, where he wrote and directed the critically lambasted "Joe vs. the Volcano" (1990) and was subsequently pegged as an adventure writer, hired to do script adaptations like "Congo" (1993) and "Alive" (1995). A rare foray into television screenwriting resulted in an Emmy nomination for the fact-based Gulf War drama "Live from Baghdad" (HBO, 2002), but Shanley generally remained a prolific and versatile playwright on the New York stage. His off-Broadway fare was hit-or-miss with critics until 2004 when "Doubt" won a Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Pulitzer Prize Award for Drama. In 2008, Shanley's suspenseful drama about sexual abuse allegations at a Catholic school was adapted and directed by him, making him one of the rare New York theater talents to successfully bring his vision to the screen without sacrificing artistic integrity.

Shanley was born on Oct. 3, 1950, and raised in the Bronx, NY. He grew up as the youngest of five children of an Irish immigrant meatpacker and a first generation Irish-American mother. His experiences in the Irish and Italian working class neighborhood, which he recalled as "anti-intellectual and extremely racist," ultimately provided a wealth of rich material for his future writing, though at the time, he suffered as an outcast. His career began while still in elementary school, where he was penning poems at age 11 and winning a statewide essay competition. After getting kicked out of local schools for behavioral problems, his parents sent him to a private school in New Hampshire where, for the first time, teachers appreciated and nurtured his writing talent. After one unsuccessful year at New York University, Shanley did a tour of duty in the Marines, but eventually returned to NYU to earn a degree in Educational Theater in 1977 as valedictorian of his class.

He worked as a bartender and after staging several plays earned considerable off-Broadway buzz for 1984's "Danny and the Deep Blue Sea," a comedic drama about a pair of hopeless barflies who find an unexpected spark of promise in their connection. The play starred then-unknown John Turturro and went on to enjoy a production in London. With 1986's "Women of Manhattan," a look at a group of young professionals lamenting over their stale romantic lives, Shanley inaugurated his association with the off-Broadway nonprofit Manhattan Theatre Club. The following year, he made a huge splash in Hollywood with his screenwriting debut "Moonstruck" (1987) - a charming, deftly constructed romantic comedy set in Brooklyn's Italian-American community. For her starring role as an efficient, love-wary accountant whose lukewarm feelings for her fiancé (Danny Aiello) contrast with a passionate attraction to his one-handed baker brother (Nicholas Cage), Cher won a Best Actress Academy Award while newcomer Shanley took home an Oscar statue for Best Original Screenplay. The same year, he also penned the Independent Spirit Awards Best Screenplay nominee "Five Corners" (1987), a 1960s-set Bronx story of a young woman (Jodie Foster) whose former stalker (John Turturro) is released from prison only to pursue her again.

The 1989 crime thriller "The January Man," scripted by Shanley and starring Kevin Kline, unfortunately missed the mark, but the undaunted writer followed up with his film directorial debut "Joe Versus the Volcano" (1990). Though the first of several successful comic pairings between Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, the enlightening adventure was only a moderate success at the box office and became most renowned for failing to recoup its inflated budget. Meanwhile, Shanley maintained a strong presence in New York theater, earning stellar reviews for "Italian American Reconciliation" and Manhattan Theater Club productions "Beggars in the House of Plenty," a chronicle of a dysfunctional Bronx family whose son escapes through writing, and the show business satire "Four Dogs and a Bone." Shanley followed up with the difficult job of adapting Piers Paul Reid's harrowing factual book Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors into the screenplay for the film, "Alive" (1993). He adapted Michael Crichton's "Congo" into a screenplay two years later. The jungle adventure film went on to earn blockbuster status.

Shanley returned to New York after his Hollywood stint and, in 1995, debuted "Psychopathia Sexualis," a comedy about an engaged artist trying to reconcile a sexual fetish for a pair of old socks before his wedding night, at the Seattle Repertory Theater. Its success led to stagings at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and the Manhattan Theater Club. In 2001, the playwright veered in a slightly different direction with "Cellini" - which he also staged - an ambitious if flawed portrait of a creative genius. Shanley successfully ventured into television the following year, collaborating on the screenplay for "Live from Baghdad" (HBO, 2002), a fact-based movie about an American news team (Michael Keaton, Helena Bonham Carter) in Iraq during the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Shanley earned an Emmy nomination for his work and returned to the stage, where his off-Broadway play "Dirty Story" was well-reviewed for creating an allegorical tale of the turbulent relationship between Israel and Palestine from a pair of swaggering, sadomasochistic male characters.

In 2004, Shanley unveiled one of the most acclaimed works of his career and his Broadway debut, with "Doubt: A Parable." Written in the wake of news headlines about sex abuse scandals in the Catholic Church, Shanley set his story about a nun who suspects a priest of inappropriate behavior with a student in a 1960s-era Catholic school in the Bronx. Shanley expanded on the scope of the issue to encompass not only the moral meditations of the issue (with an ultimately open-ended non-conclusion on the father's guilt) but a focus on the challenges Sister Aloysius faced as a second-class citizen questioning authority in the male-dominated church structure. "Doubt" captivated audiences and critics alike and earned the playwright nearly every theatrical honor, including a Tony Award for Best Play, a Drama Desk Award, Obie, and a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. In 2005, he returned to the Manhattan Theater Club with "Defiance" where the playwright further explored issues of morality in a hierarchy; this time set on a 1970s Marine base. The same year, his dance-studded romance "Sailor's Song" earned a nomination from the Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding New Play.

Shanley's 2007 musical "Romantic Poetry" received disappointing reviews, but by that time, he was hard at work adapting "Doubt" for the big screen, taking on the role of director. "Doubt" hit theaters at the end of 2008 with Meryl Streep well-cast as the truth-seeking sister and Philip Seymour Hoffman as the charismatic father under suspicion. Shanley was praised for his ability to bring his dialogue-heavy play with limited sets and characters successfully to movie audiences - enough that he was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Screenplay.   
© http://movies.yahoo.com/person/john-patrick-shanley/biography.html

TRIVIA

The opening credits show a sign advertising the opera "La Bohème", conducted by "Roger Paradiso". Roger Paradiso was involved with the production of this film.

Originally written with Sally Field in mind for the lead role.

Director Norman Jewison was fined by the actors' union for not allowing his actors to go to lunch until they perfected the moods of their characters for the climax scene in the kitchen.

Philip Rosenberg, in charge of production design, is also credited on the billboard at the Met for the production of "La bohème" attended by Loretta and Ronnie.

Watch the shot where Johnny kneels down in the Grand Ticino, as he kneels down and his face nearly leaves the camera with the nervous expression, you see him burst out laughing for about one second. If you listen closely, you can hear people laughing at him, obviously the camera crew.

Originally, the film was called "The Bride and the Wolf".

Cher had just done two movies back-to-back (The Witches of Eastwick and Suspect) and was so tired, she originally turned this part down. She also thought she could not play a bookkeeper because she is such a lavish spender in real life.

The original screenplay featured a subplot that showed the characters played by Cher and Vincent Gardenia volunteering at a men's homeless shelter as penance for their sins. The subplot was discarded.

The "Old Man" is played by Feodor Chaliapin Jr. (although credited in the film as Feodor Chaliapin). He is the son of Feodor Chaliapin Sr., who was one of the greatest basses of all time - a Russian who often performed at the Metropolitan

Like several other members of the production crew, costume designer Theoni V. Aldredge is also credited on the poster for "La bohème" shown at the beginning of the film.

Nicolas Cage's screen test didn't impress the studio, and they wanted to get someone else to play Ronny. But Cher insisted that Cage was the one to play that role, and threatened to quit unless he was hired. After a few days, the studio relented.

Olympia Dukakis is only 15 years older than her on-screen daughter Cher.

According to casting director Howard Feuer, both Anne Bancroft and Maureen Stapleton had been considered for the role of Cher's mother, but their fees were too expensive for the production budget. Feuer remembered Olympia Dukakis, a character actress known for years to most in casting, she read for director Norman Jewison and he hired her instantly.

When Johnny hails a cab at the airport after his return from Sicily, he asks the driver to take him to "19 Cranberry Street, Brooklyn." This is a real house located a few blocks from the East River, just like the exteriors shown in the movie.

The movie's line "Snap out of it!" was voted as the #96 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100).

Ranked #8 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Romantic Comedy" in June 2008.

The opening title sequence was originally played on the score from "La bohème" opera but was changed to the Dean Martin track "That's Amore" as the preview drew negative test audience reaction. Many shifted uncomfortably on their seats thinking that they had been lured into an art film.

Producer Patrick Palmer initially rejected the script saying that a special quality was not on the page.

John Mahoney later revealed that his role in the film got him widespread attention, helping him get cast in the TV series Frasier.

Norman Jewison has stated that the climactic kitchen sequence was the most difficult scene that he ever shot in his career. The crew were dismissed and Jewison rehearsed with the cast for some time, using a stage production approach. Only after the actors perfected their timing did he decide where to put the camera.

(c) FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THIS OR ANY FILM, ALWAYS GO TO THE INTERNET MOVIE DATA BASE: www.imdb.com

GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER?
November 2011

The following information--and other interesting facts about the film--can be found on the Internet Movie Database: www.imdb.com

Katharine Hepburn's character's daughter is played by Hepburn's actual niece Katharine Houghton.

Spencer Tracy died 17 days after filming was completed.

When the movie was conceived and launched by producer-director Stanley Kramer, one of Hollywood's greatest liberal movie-makers, intermarriage between African Americans and Caucasians was still illegal in 14 states. Towards the end of production, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Loving v. Virginia. The Loving decision was made on June 12, 1967, two days after the death of star Spencer Tracy, who had played a "phony" white liberal who grudgingly accepts his daughter's marriage to a black man. In Loving, the High Court unanimously ruled that anti-miscegenation marriage laws were unconstitutional. In his opinion, Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote, "Marriage is one of the 'basic civil rights of man,' fundamental to our very existence and survival. To deny this fundamental freedom on so unsupportable a basis as the racial classifications embodied in these statutes, classifications so directly subversive of the principle of equality at the heart of the Fourteenth Amendment, is surely to deprive all the State's citizens of liberty without due process of law. The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discriminations. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State." Interestingly, Kramer kept in the line of the African American father played by Roy Glenn, who tells his son played by Sidney Poitier, "In 16 or 17 states you'll be breaking the law. You'll be criminals." This was probably because Kramer realized that, despite the change in the law, the couple would still be facing a great deal of prejudice requiring a stalwart love for their marriage to survive, which was the message Tracy's character gives in an eight-minute scene that is the climax of the movie. The scene summing up the theme of the movie was the last one the dying Tracy filmed for the movie, and it was the last time he would ever appear on film. It took a week to shoot the scene and at the end, he was given a standing ovation by the crew. He died a little over a fortnight after walking off of a sound-stage for the last time.

The three-inch bronze sculpture of Spencer Tracy featured in the film was created by Katharine Hepburn herself and was one of the items that were included in her estate auction in 2004. The bust was the most sought-after item and fetched the most money - it sold for $316,000, whereas pre-auction estimates were in the neighborhood of $3,000-$5,000.

Katharine Hepburn never saw the completed movie. She said the memories of Tracy were too painful.

Katharine Hepburn had to use her salary as backing in order to make this movie because Spencer Tracy was so ill that the studio didn't think that he would make to the end of the picture

In some shots you can clearly see Katharine Hepburn's head and hands trembling because of her hereditary shake, e.g., when she is pouring a drink for the Reverend right after his second arrival.

Due to Spencer Tracy's health, the cast was always working from two shooting scripts, one with Tracy, one without. Typically, Katharine Hepburn brought Tracy in the morning, they worked until she decided he was too tired, then Tracy and Hepburn left. Sidney Poitier, who already had received a Best Actor Oscar for Lilies of the Field, was intimidated by working with two legends, and preferred to perform to empty high backed chairs.

Spencer Tracy's glasses have no lenses throughout the film.

The film is the debut of Isabel Sanford, who later gained fame as Louise on The Jeffersons. In 1981, she became the first African American woman to win an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.

This movie was still showing in theaters at the time Martin Luther King was assassinated. Originally, there was a line in the movie where Joey (Katharine Houghton) tells the maid another person is coming to dinner, to which Tillie (Isabel Sanford), the maid guesses, "The Reverend Martin Luther King?" When King was murdered, the studio immediately called the theaters showing the film and gave instructions to cut that scene from the movie.

Like Katharine Hepburn, the film's producer and director Stanley Kramer also put his salary in escrow as backing in order to placate the studio who was nervous about having Spencer Tracy star due to his poor health.

Katharine Hepburn is the only movie star to win four Academy Awards for her leading roles in Morning Glory, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, The Lion in Winter, and On Golden Pond.

Spencer Tracy received a posthumous Best Actor Academy Award nomination for his film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. His widow Louise attended the ceremony in the event that he would win. However, the award went instead to Rod Steiger for In the Heat of the Night.

This film was instrumental in largely ending the marketing consideration of how films featuring African-American characters and themes were assumed to be likely rejected by mainstream audiences in the Southern States of the USA. In that regard, the film was such a major widespread success throughout the entire USA, including the South, that the marketing factor would never again be considered a major problem for any major film release.

In the scene near the end where Spencer Tracy gives his memorable soliloquy, Katharine Hepburn can be seen crying in the background. This was not acting: she knew how gravely ill her longtime lover was and was moved by his remarks about how true love endures through the years.

ON THE WATERFRONT
October 2011

TRIVIA
More trivia can be found at the Movie-Goer's Bible: www.imdb.com

The idea for the film began with an expose series written for The New York Sun by reporter Malcolm Johnson. The 24 articles won him a Pulitzer Prize and were reinforced by the 1948 murder of a New York dock hiring boss which woke America to the killings, graft and extortion that were endemic on the New York waterfront. Budd Schulberg was captivated by the subject matter, devoting years of his life to absorbing everything he could about the milieu. He became a regular fixture on the waterfront, hanging out in West Side Manhattan and Long Island bars, interviewing longshore-union leaders and getting to know the outspoken priests from St Xavier's in Hell's Kitchen.

On the Waterfront is widely known to be an act of expiation on the part of Elia Kazan for naming names to HUAC during the Joseph McCarthy witch-hunts of the 1950s. What is less widely reported is that Kazan intended it as a direct attack at his former close friend Arthur Miller who had been openly critical of Kazan's actions. Specifically, it was a direct response to Miller's play The Crucible.

Elia Kazan was loath to do business with Darryl F. Zanuck who had insisted on multiple cuts on Man on a Tightrope. Fortunately when Kazan and writer Budd Schulberg met with Zanuck, he started talking about widescreen Technicolor pictures. Zanuck eventually came clean and said he didn't like a single thing about it, stating "Who's going to care about a bunch of sweaty longshoremen?" This led Kazan and Schulberg to meet with independent producer Sam Spiegel who set up a deal with Columbia.

Sam Spiegel sent the script to Marlon Brando and it came back with a refusal. Spiegel however had inserted small pieces of paper between the pages which were still in place when the script was returned to him, indicating that it hadn't been read. While Spiegel continued to work on Brando, Frank Sinatra agreed to take on the role.

According to Marlon Brando's friend, Carlo Fiore, and his reminiscences in his book "Bud: The Brando I Knew", it was Fiore who helped make some key decisions about the famous taxi cab scene. It wasn't working to Brando's satisfaction, and the actor was becoming increasingly frustrated at being unable to find the truth about the scene. Fiore told him that having a gun pulled on him by his brother would hit a bullshit note with Terry, and that shocked disbelief that his brother would do such a thing would be the most appropriate response. Brando then went into a stormy conference with Elia Kazan and Sam Spiegel before nailing the scene. Afterwards Kazan drew Fiore aside and said "Next time you get an idea about a scene, bring it to me, not Marlon, okay?" There is some doubt about the veracity of this story however as one look at the original script reveals that shocked surprise was Terry's reaction all along.

Sam Spiegel forgot to pay for rear-projection equipment, hence the reason why the cab where Marlon Brando and Rod Steiger play out the film's most famous scene has blinds.

As part of his contract, Marlon Brando only worked till 4 every day and then he would leave to go see his analyst. Brando's mother had recently died and the conflicted young actor was in therapy to resolve his issues with his parents. Interestingly, for the film's classic scene between Rod Steiger and Brando in the back of the cab, all of Steiger's close-ups were filmed after Brando had left for the day, so his lines were read by one of the crew members. Steiger remained very bitter about that for many years and often mentioned it in interviews.

From a budget of just under $1 million, the film went on to gross ten times its production costs in its initial release.

Elia Kazan later remarked that the biggest problem he encountered with his actors was getting them on set on time (the weather was so severely cold, most of the actors didn't like to hang around the set for long).

Arthur Miller was approached by Elia Kazan to write the screenplay, and did so, but later pulled it when the FBI and studio bosses required him to make the gangsters Communists.

Film debuts of Johnny Seven, Michael V. Gazzo, Pat Hingle, Martin Balsam, and Eva Marie Saint. The last gave a debut performance that won her the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award.

The only film that wasn't a musical for which Leonard Bernstein wrote the incidental music.

Frank Sinatra was originally considered for the role of Terry Malloy. Elia Kazan approached Sinatra about the part but producer Sam Spiegel favored Marlon Brando for his greater pulling power at the box office.

According to Arthur Miller in his autobiography "Timebends", he had written a screenplay dealing with corruption on the New York waterfront called "The Hook". Elia Kazan had agreed to direct it, and in 1951 they went to see Harry Cohn at Columbia Pictures about making the picture. Cohn agreed in principle to make "The Hook", but his minions were troubled by the portrayal of corrupt union officials. When Cohn asked that the antagonists of the script be changed to Communists, Miller refused. Cohn sent Miller a letter telling him it was interesting that he had resisted Columbia's desire to make the movie pro-American. This film, which did include corrupt union officials, was based on articles by Malcolm Johnson. Kazan asked Miller to write the script, but he declined due to his disenchantment with Kazan's friendly testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Budd Schulberg, a fellow HUAC informer, developed the story and wrote the script. The movie was produced by Sam Spiegel and distributed by Columbia, which had turned down "The Hook".

Elia Kazan, in his autobiography "A Life", says that the choice of an actress to play Edie Doyle was narrowed down to Elizabeth Montgomery and Eva Marie Saint. Although Montgomery was fine in her screen test, there was something well-bred about her that Kazan thought would not be becoming for Edie, who was raised on the waterfront in Hoboken, NJ. He gave the part to Saint, and she went on to win cinematic immortality, and a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, in the part.

Roger Donoghue (born 11/20/30 Yonkers, NY - died 8/20/06 Greenport, NY) was the prizefighter who Budd Schulberg credited with partly inspiring the famous line of Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando), "I coulda been a contender". He was Brando's trainer for the film. He came up with the idea of putting little plastic tubes in Brando's nose to represent scar tissue.

(c) Internet Movie Database