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Jay C. Flippen, Lee Marvin, Marlon Brando

A vicious biker gang terrorizes a small town while their leader falls for a local girl.

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73% liked it

2,230 ratings

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80% liked it

20 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 19 min.

Directed by: Jay C. Flippen, Laslo Benedek, Lee Marvin, Marlon Brando, Mary Murphy, Peggy Maley, Robert Keith

Release Date: January 1, 1954

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DVD Release Date: November 10, 1998

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Flixster Reviews (469)

  • sanjurosamurai
    August 26, 2009
    sanjurosamurai
    although entertaining, this film missteps in a lot of places. this is one of brando's weaker performances, the story is not quite as provocative as the opening shot promises it to be, and there was no real commentary offered here by the culture the film was trying to portray. a...( read more) fun and silly film that misses the mark.
  • sononothing
    December 19, 2008
    sononothing
    The Wild One is about a motorcycle club (apparently "gang" wasn't used back in 1953) that rolls into a small town and upsets the locals with their over zealous behavior. The leader Johnny (Marlon Brando) falls for a local girl whose father also happens to be the local constable. ...( read more)

    The Wild One is your basic 1950's exploitation film just with better actors. It's message: rebels without a cause can wind up in big trouble even if they don't mean it. The script is rather droll with Brando's Johnny jumping back and forth from should we stay or should we go.

    Brando is the main reason to see this film. He radiates when he's on screen and buries his co-stars in the dust. Everyone except Lee Marvin, who does a great job as the drunken leader of a rival gang called The Beatles. Yes, the Beatles. Sadly, Marvin's was underused even though later press materials played him up as the chief antagonist to Brando's Johnny.

    The Wild One is basically a film to watch if you A) enjoy 1950's shake their finger at you tales or B) a look at a great actor rising above the drivel he's been given.
  • organgrinder136
    September 6, 2008
    organgrinder136
    i really enjoyed marlon brando in this, more so than in the godfather. he plays the leader of a band of motorcyclists who are out to provoke conflict but not start it. i think alot of people can identify with his character here... the misfits in the population anyway. i'm glad br...( read more)ando played a part like this. he isn't just the godfather. haha. lee marvin playing chino was fucking awesome also, entering the fray by getting off of his bike and sounding like he'd just got off a frigate from the old world. when they're rampaging in the shop (with one of them trying a dress on) and chino comes out with "storm the bastille". it was comments like that from lee marvins character that tickled me throughout. i think this is quite possibly my favourite old skool black n' white movie of all time and it's not a case of style over substance due to the quality acting from the two leads. ample direction by laslo benedek and an excellent script make this unmissable viewing. watch or stop needlin' square!
  • FangsFirst
    March 6, 2008
    FangsFirst
    Being as it was Marlon Brando's role in Apocalypse Now that originally so killed the pacing of the movie for me, I originally had no real desire to track down On the Waterfront, A Streetcar Named Desire or this film. I remember reading a MAD parody once, call...( read more)ed The Wheeled One, but that's about the extent of my experience here. I have heard that Rebel Without a Cause is a "pale imitation" of this film, usually from those who feel that James Dean was a pale imitation of Marlon Brando. If memory serves, though, what broke me on snapping this one up (admittedly, pretty cheap) was the presence of Lee Marvin.

    I've read strange and peculiar things about this movie. My first impression was that it was an exploitation-esque film, in the vein of Ed Wood's The Sinister Urge (uh, not that I'm comparing the two quality wise, mind you)--something that says, "Look! See how dangerous the gangs are! These horrible hoodlums on their motorized bicycles! What horror! What hooligans!" Then I read something (I believe it was the Wikipedia entry on the film) that said that the "Motorcycle Club" Johnny Strabler (Brando) rides with was pretty sympathetic and didn't do anything overly harmful, and really just pursued a good time and fun, rather than being troublemaking degenerates. And Sonny Barger apparently felt Johnny was a bully to Chino (Marvin).

    What I've seen seems to be a movie that none of these other folk saw. In my version (which I realistically expect is the exact same film) the gang is sympathetic, yes, but not without fault by any stretch of the imagination. Yes, prejudices are put forth against them, with many folks assuming they are degenerates who should automatically be locked up. But the first major incident, when they are "dragging for beer" and one of the club members slides his bike under a swerving car--well, the reactions might have been a bit excessive, but, um, they WERE just drag racing down an actual street with actual traffic. They do start breaking things and causing trouble and so on, and even chase down Kathie Bleeker (Mary Murphy) because she is "Johnny's Girl,"--at least, Johnny feels this way, even if she doesn't. While I'm a believer that there can be an overreaction to basic interest from people sometimes that is misconstrued unfairly, I think riding motorcycles in a tight circle around someone very definitely crosses that line. Admittedly, Johnny has nothing to do with this, so perhaps that's the line people were referring to. But, still, the film does seem intent on pointing out--repeatedly--that the gang is looking for trouble, openly and honestly. And as for Sonny...I don't even understand the feeling that there is such a dynamic. Chino and Johnny are like brothers, fighting but with mutual common interest in the wellbeing of the other.

    Anyway, I digress, and I'm off on the subject of what the film is trying to say without saying much about whether the film achieves any of these things successfully or manages to do anything other than engender this debate. I will say that the fact that it manages to engender both these varied responses and this debate from myself is a testament to the at least slightly-higher brow approach to the material than someone like, say, Ed Wood, has used. Sympathies are varied and a little more grey than I guess I expected, with Johnny occasionally coming off as kind of a jerk, and Chino being more sympathetic than I particularly expected. The obvious villain (with no real debate!) is Charlie Thomas (Hugh Sanders) who takes it upon himself to violently stop Johnny, after consistently suggesting he should be locked up. The response from Sheriff Harry Bleeker (Robert Keith) doesn't help matters, and it's only made worse by Johnny's response to Bleeker. The Sheriff is a decent man, but not one with the strongest spine in the world. He does try valiantly to solve things peaceably, but fails because of Johnny's refusal to listen to "cops." Self-righteous Charlie exacerbates things far more than Johnny though, but his gang is no help either, tearing up the town, even if all in fun, and legitimately and reasonably scaring and worrying the less arrogant and pompous townspeople.

    Brando's performance is moody, fiery despite its subtlety, and actually kind of like a petulant teenager, which I guess isn't far off the age he's intended to be. It's a little off-putting for that reason, but this in no way denigrates the quality of it. I almost feel like Lee Marvin shines more, as the rowdy, boisterous Chino--a far cry from his later stern, tight-lipped bad-ass roles, but almost more entertaining because of that context.

    Not a stunning movie (anymore, at least) but a very good one.
  • Jules1st
    June 30, 2007
    Jules1st
    Known to be the original byker movie, The Wild One is a short right with a great Brando performance.
  • xobabygreekox
    October 2, 2009
    xobabygreekox
    maybe:) i always loved brando:)
  • SageSlowdive
    September 22, 2009
    SageSlowdive
    Brando isn't very convincing.
  • AD917
    September 6, 2009
    AD917
    Marlon Brando is amazing. I can?t think of another actor who could simultaneously project machismo and vulnerability so effortlessly. The movie itself is dated a bit by being so rooted in 1950?s culture, but that also works in making it a reflection of it?s time. Brando?s perform...( read more)ance is what makes this a classic.
  • Blaxunshine
    September 3, 2009
    Blaxunshine
    Dated by today's standards but kids back then didn't really have a rebel role model except this & Rebel w/o a Cause. I watched it because Ive seen only a hand full of Brando & he seems to try to scratch more of the surface of a punk who rebelling against everything you've got -...( read more) 'my oldman hits harder then you'. I had forgotten Lee Marvin was in this which was a pleasant surprise playing a great drunk on a rival gang - The Beatles
  • Sunshineyness
    August 28, 2009
    Sunshineyness
    I used to work with an older woman who was in HS when this movie came out. She told me all the kids glommed on to it and walked around her HS going "vroom vroom!" desperately wanting motorcycles.

    55 years later... I can kinda see why. Marlon Brando was at the peak of his sex ap...( read more)peal and he really knew how to ride a motorcycle and look utterly cool and sexy whilst doing it.

    The movie itself is up there with Rebel Without a Cause in that it's a typical "the kids aren't all right" movie but the actors are a bit more high brow so it gets a pass. Thing of is is... I am WILDLY fascinated with these "kids aren't all right" movies of the time and the paranoia they must have caused in the straight laced white community. THIS is what white middle class America in the 50's feared- lawlessness, youth gone wild, sexual freedom, different people. They listened to JAZZ music and spoke like BEATNIKS.

    Over all a worthwhile movie to see just to check out what your grandparents generation feared the most: change.

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