On the Waterfront opens by introducing
the small group of corrupt racketeers that run the docks of Hoboken,
New Jersey, across the river from Manhattan. Terry Malloy, an inarticulate
former prizefighter in his late twenties, serves as a petty errand
boy for the union head, Johnny Friendly. Friendly’s gang uses Malloy
as a decoy to draw fellow longshoreman Joey Doyle out of his apartment
and onto the roof. Doyle is planning to break the bullied workers’
policy of remaining “deaf and dumb” by testifying in front of the
Waterfront Crime Commission the next day about the corrupt methods union
bosses employ to extort money and labor from the working-class longshoremen.
The gangsters push Doyle off the roof to his death, implicating
Malloy in the murder as an accomplice. A shocked Malloy had fooled
himself into believing Doyle would only be roughed up a little.
The neighborhood gathers over Doyle’s body. Pops Doyle,
a longshoreman for four decades, tells everyone he had advised his son
to be quiet, since his testimony would risk the jobs and lives of all
the stevedores. Joey Doyle’s sister Edie, a buttoned-up Catholic teacher
trainee who is home visiting from her school, screams passionately
for justice over her brother’s corpse. Finally, the local priest
Father Barry kneels over Doyle, praying. Besides Edie, the entire
waterfront knows what really happened, but no one will speak. At
Johnny Friendly’s smoky barroom hangout, Charlie “the Gent” Malloy,
Terry’s brother, who serves as Friendly’s right-hand man, is introduced.
Terry’s hot temper in this scene indicates that his conscience is
wrought by his role in Joey’s death.
After lolling around his rooftop pigeon coop the next
morning with a devoted neighborhood boy, Malloy walks to the docks
for the morning shape-up. Two Waterfront Crime Commission officers seek
out Malloy, who is rumored to be the last man to see Joey alive. Malloy
stays mum. Edie and Father Barry appear to witness the distribution
of jobs for the day—any man who receives a work tab will have a
job. There are many more men than there are work tabs, however,
and the work-thirsty crowd surrounds the foreman, Big Mac. Big Mac
throws the work tabs across the pier, causing a mad free-for-all.
Malloy meets Edie when he grabs a tab that she’s desperately trying
to secure for her father and, upon learning who she is, gives her
the tab.
Charlie asks Terry to attend a secret meeting in Father
Barry’s church arranged by the men who didn’t get work that day.
Not wanting to be a stoolie (short for stool
pigeon), or informer, Terry offers weak protests. Johnny
Friendly has set Terry up with a cushy job, however, so he doesn’t
really have a choice. No one speaks at the meeting when Father Barry
asks about Joey’s death. Thugs ambush the proceedings and mercilessly
beat all who can’t escape. Grabbing Edie’s hands, Terry helps her
escape. As he walks her home through a park, they awkwardly get
to know each other. Edie accidentally drops her glove and Terry
picks it up, suggestively sliding his hand into it. At one point,
a homeless man interrupts and mentions that Terry saw Joey the night
he was killed.
Terry leaves Edie sweetly and awkwardly. Pops Doyle,
who witnesses the entire episode from his window and wants no daughter
of his consorting with the brother of the vicious Charlie Malloy,
packs Edie’s bags and prepares to send her back to school. Edie
defends the confused Terry and demands to stay in order to find
Joey’s murderer.
That evening, Edie and Terry meet accidentally on the
tenement rooftop, where Terry has been caring for both his and Joey’s pigeons.
Curious about his sensitive side, Edie agrees to go for a drink
with Terry at a local saloon, though she’s never had a beer. In this
raucous bar, the two have a tender, pained conversation. Edie pleads
with Terry for help and he wants desperately for her to like him,
but he can’t help her. After a disagreement, Edie tries to leave, but
a boisterous wedding celebration sweeps her up. Edie and Terry end
up dancing at the party until late. Two events crush their blissful escape.
First, Johnny Friendly sends a goon to find Terry and tell him to
report to the boss immediately. Moments later, the Waterfront Crime
Commission serves Terry with a subpoena to appear at the State House
in a few days to answer questions about the death of Joey Doyle.
Angry with Terry for hiding facts about his and his brother’s involvement
in Joey’s death, Edie runs away. Terry walks home alone, but Charlie
and Friendly find him. They berate him for hanging around with Joey’s
sister and not reporting on the meeting.
The next day at the docks, the union kills “Kayo” Dugan,
a stevedore who had secretly testified at great length about Friendly’s operation,
by “accidentally” dropping a crate of Irish whiskey over him. Beside
Dugan’s body, Father Barry pledges his support to the longshoremen
and demonstrates his commitment by standing firm as men throw rotten
fruit and beer cans at him from above. He preaches at length from
the hold that Dugan’s death was a crucifixion. Torn, Terry retreats
to the rooftops and the pigeons that night. Edie finds him there,
and they finally kiss passionately. The next day Terry confesses
to Father Barry about his involvement in Joey’s death. Father Barry
convinces the reluctant Terry to tell Edie. He eventually does tell
her, in a momentous scene where the whistle of a steamship drowns
out their conversation. Distraught, she runs away.
Back on the rooftop, a commission officer talks with
Terry about his old prizefights, while at the longshoreman’s shack
Johnny Friendly puts pressure on Charlie to make sure his brother
doesn’t squeal. When Charlie and Terry ride in a cab together, their
differing interests explode. Terry wants help from his brother,
but Charlie wants to make sure Terry won’t talk. In the passion
of conflicting emotions, Charlie pulls a gun on his brother, who
piteously and gently turns it away. Charlie begins to reminisce
about Terry’s boxing days, causing Terry to bring up the truth that
Charlie forced him to throw a big fight, on Johnny Friendly’s orders.
He laments that he could have made something of his life, had Charlie
not betrayed him. After the conversation, Terry flees to Edie’s,
and Charlie is taken to Johnny Friendly’s. Terry breaks down Edie’s
door and forcibly kisses her. Through the window Terry is called
down to the street, just as he had called to Joey at the beginning
of the film. He and Edie run from a speeding car, only to discover
Charlie hung by a hook in the gently falling rain, murdered for
his failure to convince Terry to remain silent. Vowing to avenge
his death, Terry runs to Johnny Friendly’s bar, gun in hand. Father
Barry finds him there, drunk and confused. Terry curses at Father
Barry, and Father Barry punches him. He tells Terry not to play
at Friendly’s level, since he’ll achieve only mob justice and have
no legal protection. He tells Terry the only right thing to do is
to testify against the corrupt union leaders, and Terry finally
agrees.
The next day Terry testifies to the commission in court.
On the way home, he’s protected by cops and scorned by his friends. Tommy,
the neighborhood kid, has killed all his pigeons. Knowing what he
has to do to claim his identity and independence, he grabs Joey
Doyle’s jacket from Edie’s apartment and walks down to the docks
for the morning shape-up. With all the longshoremen looking on,
Terry calls Johnny Friendly out of his tiny shack and delivers an emotional
speech announcing his new goal: to break away from mob rule toward
independent thought. A fight ensues between Terry and Friendly.
When the fight moves behind the shack, out of sight of the longshoremen,
a pack of Friendly’s goons move in and pummel Terry mercilessly.
Other goons restrain the longshoremen, who are not really making
an effort to help anyway. Instead, they place all their hopes on
Terry. Finally, Edie and Father Barry burst through and find Terry
almost comatose, the water lapping at his body. Father Barry encourages
Terry to stand in order to be a model of strength for the longshoremen.
Terry rises without assistance, but he wobbles violently and squints
through swollen eyes. He shuffles up the ramp and staggers toward
the work hangar to show he’s ready for that day’s honest labor.
Finally, he manages to reach the hangar. All the longshoremen, truly
inspired, follow their new leader. Johnny Friendly wails helplessly,
alone on the docks. The longshoremen disappear into the hangar,
and the garage door closes.
