Die Faust im Nacken

Marlon Brando's acting style impressed and influenced generations. In this drama by Elia Kazan, he displays the full range of his skills.

Marlon Brando plays the lead role of Terry Malloy, a failed prizefighter who is hired as an errand boy for the mafia thanks to the connections of his brother Charley, a lawyer for a corrupt dockworkers' union. After luring another dockworker and friend to his death to keep him from testifying against foreman Johnny Friendly, the pleas of the dead man's sister and a dedicated priest awaken Terry's sense of guilt. Despite being brutally mauled by Friendly's thugs, Terry is moved by love to retaliate by supporting a crime commission's investigation into the corrupt dockworkers' union.