From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message. This article has been tagged since January 2007.

The Wild One
Original film poster.
Directed by	László Benedek Paul Donnelly
Produced by	Stanley Kramer
Written by	Novel: Frank Rooney Screenplay: John Paxton Ben Maddow
Narrated by	Marlon Brando
Starring	Marlon Brando Mary Murphy Lee Marvin
Music by	Leith Stevens
Cinematography	Hal Mohr
Editing by	Al Clark
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	December 30, 1953
Running time	79 min.
Country	USA
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Wild One is a 1953 outlaw biker film. It is remembered for Marlon Brando's portrayal of the gang leader Johnny Stabler as a juvenile delinquent, dressed in a leather jacket and driving a 1950 Triumph Thunderbird 6T. Acting opposite of Brando was Lee Marvin as a rival gang leader. This low-budget production had Brando playing a rebel without a cause two years before James Dean.

The film version was based on a January, 1951 short story in Harper's Magazine "The Cyclists' Raid" by Frank Rooney that was published in book form as part of "The Best American Short Stories 1952." The story took a cue from an actual biker street party on the Fourth of July weekend in 1947 in Hollister, California that was elaborately trumped up in Life Magazine (dubbed the Hollister riot) with staged photographs of wild motorcycle outlaw revellers. The Hollister event is now celebrated annually. In the film, the town is located somewhere in California.

Deemed scandalous and dangerous, the film was banned by the British Board of Film Censors from showing in the United Kingdom for fourteen years. Its first UK public showing, to a mostly Rocker audience being at the then famous 59 Club of Paddington in London.

It is notable that the Beatles got their name from the film, as it is the name of Chino's, Johnny's rival, Motorcycle gang. Furthermore, current rock group Black Rebel Motorcycle Club got their name from the name of Brando's motorcycle gang, although one of the bikers calls the gang "Black Rebels Motorcycle Club". This also ties in to the 1950's motif that the band leans toward.

"What are you rebelling against?"

"What have you got?"

• Marlon Brando as Johnny Strabler and the narrator
• Mary Murphy as Kathie Bleeker
• Robert Keith as Sheriff Harry Bleeker
• Lee Marvin as Chino
• Jay C. Flippen as Sheriff Stew Singer
• Peggy Maley as Mildred
• Hugh Sanders as Charlie Thomas
• Ray Teal as Uncle Frank Bleeker
• Richard Farnsworth (uncredited)

• The Wild One at the Internet Movie Database
• The Wild One at the TCM Movie Database
• Tim Dirks reviews The Wild One
• The Wild One Banned in UK