Thursday, August 6, 2009

Budd Schulberg (1914–2009)

From my favorite scene in On the Waterfront (dir. Elia Kazan, 1954), a conversation between Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) and Edie Doyle (Eva Marie Saint), my transcription:

Terry: Boy, the way those sisters used to whack me, I don’t know what. They thought they was gonna beat an education into me, but I foxed ’em. [Shrugs.]

Edie: Maybe they just didn’t know how to handle you.

Terry: How would you’ve done it?

Edie: With a little more patience and kindness. That’s what makes people mean and difficult — people don’t care enough about them.

Terry: [Long pause.] Aah, what are you, kiddin’ me?

Edie: No.

Terry: Come on, I better get you home. There’s too many guys around here with only one thing on their mind. [Pause.] Am I gonna to see you again?

Edie: [Pause.] What for?

Terry: [Pause.] I don’t know.

Edie: [Pause.] I really don’t know.
Budd Schulberg, who wrote the screenplay, died yesterday.

Budd Schulberg, Screenwriter, Dies at 95 (New York Times)

comments: 2

JuliaR said...

Is that the scene where he picks up one of her gloves and puts it on? Great improv.

Michael Leddy said...

Yep. I’ve read that Saint dropped the glove in rehearsal, that Brando picked it up and put it on, and that Kazan liked the bit and wanted it in. It’s such an intimate moment, as I realized when I watched it again this morning — they barely know one another, yet his hand is in her glove.