To Kill a Mockingbird, and On The Waterfront

To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) was not at all what I was expecting; somehow I'd gotten the impression that it had to do with Presidential politics, which is clearly not the case. I think I confused it with some other movie I haven't yet seen.

Gregory Peck stars as Atticus Finch, a lawyer in a small town in the Depression-era south, who is raising his daughter Scout (Mary Badham) and son Jem (Philip Alford). Atticus is a moral man who takes on the case of a young black man, Tom Robinson (Brock Peters), who is accused of raping and beating the daughter of farmer Bob Ewell (John Anderson). The farmers want to lynch Robinson, but Atticus has the support of the local judge and sheriff to give the man - whose guilt is very much in doubt - a fair trial.

Meanwhile, Scout and Jem have become entranced by the mystery of "Boo" Radley, the never-seen neighbor child who has become a local bogey-man. Much of the film involves the adventures of the children, learning about "Boo" to the extent that they can, Scout's first year at school, following their father to the courthouse to see him work, and living as young children in a rural community. It's a charming film, with its own little moral lessons as well as a larger drama about elements of adult life going on around two innocent children. The end of the film is perhaps a little too pat, and Atticus seems a little too perfect, but it's still entertaining and basically successful.

(Subrata says the book upon which the film is based is much better, and more intricate.)

The acting is quite good, although as one might expect the children sometimes seem rather forced. Peck is very good, and cuts a very different figure than he did in Hitchcock's Spellbound. I'm interested in seeing him in other things, now.

I was far less engaged by On The Waterfront (1954), in which Marlon Brando plays Terry Molloy, an ex-prize fighter who is now a longshoreman in New York and who has been taken by his older brother Charley (Rod Steiger) into the mob which controls the local union. Terry is involved in the murder of a man who was to testify against the mob, and as a result he meets and falls for the man's sister, Edie Doyle (Eva Marie Saint). Meanwhile, Father Barry (Karl Malden) tries to rally the workers to cast off the yoke of the mob, but with limited results, as another man is murdered by Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) and his gang. (Eagle eyes with spot Fred Gwynn among the gang.)

Frankly, I found this film to be rather boring. Brando's style of angst doesn't work as well in this stark, completely unromantic setting as it did in A Streetcar Named Desire, especially since the romance between Terry and Edie is very much subsidiary to the union-corruption plot. Waterfront just takes too long to set up and resolve its conflicts, and although the ending is dramatic, it's neither very plausible, nor very satisfying (nor much of an ending!).

The acting is generally fine, but didn't really impress me. The lighting and cinematography are very impressive, but I wish the story had been tighter; they'd have been much more effective that way.

So I'm afraid I don't feel this film ranks up with the other "legendary classics" that I've heard about and - in the last couple of years - seen. Well, that's what makes for horse races, I guess!