The Wild One

The Wild One
The Wild One
	Theatrical release poster
Directed by	László Benedek
Screenplay by	John Paxton; Ben Maddow
Based on	Cyclists' Raid; 1951 story in Harper's; by Frank Rooney
Produced by	Stanley Kramer
Starring	Marlon Brando; Mary Murphy; Robert Keith
Narrated by	Marlon Brando
Cinematography	Hal Mohr
Edited by	Al Clark
Music by	Leith Stevens
Production; company	Stanley Kramer Pictures Corp.
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release dates	December 30, 1953 (NYC); February 1954 (US);
Running time	79 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

The Wild One is a 1953 American crime film directed by László Benedek and produced by Stanley Kramer. The picture is most noted for the character of Johnny Strabler, portrayed by Marlon Brando, whose persona became a cultural icon of the 1950s. The Wild One is considered to be the original outlaw biker film, and the first to examine American outlaw motorcycle gang violence.^[2]^[3]^[4] The supporting cast features Lee Marvin as Chino, truculent leader of the motorcycle gang "The Beetles".

The film's screenplay was based on Frank Rooney's short story "Cyclists' Raid", published in the January 1951 Harper's Magazine and anthologized in The Best American Short Stories 1952. Rooney's story was inspired by sensationalistic media coverage of an American Motorcyclist Association motorcycle rally that got out of hand on the Fourth of July weekend in 1947 in Hollister, California. The overcrowding, drinking and street stunting were given national attention in the July 21, 1947, issue of Life, with a possibly staged photograph of a wild drunken man on a motorcycle.^[5] The events, conflated with the newspaper and magazine reports, Rooney's short story, and the film The Wild One are part of the legend of the Hollister riot.

^ The Wild One – AFI | Catalog – American Film Institute
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[1] The Wild One – AFI | Catalog – American Film Institute

[Pratt2006-2] Cite error: The named reference Pratt2006 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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[Foster2008-4] Cite error: The named reference Foster2008 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Life1947-5] Cite error: The named reference Life1947 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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