On The Waterfront

EMILY MORTIMER: “There’s a moment in On The Waterfront where Marlon Brando is talking to Eva Marie Saint about their childhoods, because they grew up together. It’s a really sexy scene — incredibly romantic and fraught with sexual tension. She drops a glove and he puts it on his own hand, which I think just happened in the moment. It’s so sexy and cool and weird.”

Terry (Brando) is walking Edie (Saint) back home, through a park.

TERRY: You don’t have to be afraid of me, I’m not gonna bite ya. I guess they don’t let you walk with fellas where you been, huh?

EDIE: You know how the Sisters are.

TERRY: Yeah. Are you training to be a nun? Edie fishes in her pocket for her gloves, dropping one as they go.

EDIE: It’s just a regular college.

TERRY: Wait a sec… He bends down to pick up the glove.

EDIE: It’s run by the Sisters of St. Anne. They stop by children’s play equipment. Terry sits on a swing.

TERRY: Where is that?

EDIE: In Tarrytown.

TERRY: Where is that?

EDIE: In the country.

TERRY: The crickets I don’t make like me the nervous. country. Now, how often do you get in here?

EDIE: I haven’t been here since last Christmas. We were going to have a Thanksgiving party.

TERRY: [putting on Edie’s glove] That’s nice. What — what do you do up there? What, study?

EDIE: I want to be a teacher. She reaches out briefly for her glove, and thinks better of it.

TERRY: Teacher? That’s very good. You know, personally I admire brains. My brother, Charley, is a very brainy guy. Spent a coupla years at college.

EDIE: It isn’t just brains. It’s how you use them. She moves on. Terry too.

TERRY: Yeah, I get your thought. You know, I’ve seen you a lot of times before. You remember parochial school out on Pulaski Street? Seven, eight years ago? Your hair, uh, you had your hair…

EDIE: Braids.

TERRY: [taking a stick of gum out of his pocket] Looked like a hunka rope. You had wires on your teeth and glasses. Everything. You was really a mess. Edie, exasperated, reaches out and takes her glove back.

EDIE: I can get home alright now, thanks.

TERRY: Hey, look, don’t get sore, I’m just kiddin’ ya a little bit. I just mean to tell you that you’re… you grew up very nice.

EDIE: Thanks. She walks off.

TERRY: You don’t… you don’t remember me, do ya? She turns.

EDIE: I remembered you the first moment I saw you.

TERRY: [pointing to his nose] By the nose, huh? Edie laughs.

TERRY: Well, some people just got faces that stick in your mind. He walks over to her.

EDIE: I remember you were in trouble all the time.

TERRY: Now you got me. Boy, the way those sisters used to whack me, I don’t know what. They thought they was going to beat an education into me, but I foxed ’em.

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

TERRY: How would you have 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. They share a look. Terry suddenly becomes self-conscious.

TERRY: Ah, what, you kiddin’ me? Come on, I better get you home. There’s too many guys round here with only one thing on their mind. Am I going to see you again?

EDIE: What for?

TERRY: I don’t know.

EDIE: I really don’t know. Terry walks away. He turns and beckons her over.

TERRY: Come on! She walks over to join him.