Top 10 Elia Kazan Movies


10. Baby Doll (1956)
Based on a play by Tennessee Williams, "Baby Doll" centers on Archie Lee Meighan (Karl Malden), a failing cotton gin owner who is married to Baby Doll (Carroll Baker), a 19-year old childlike beauty whose father arranged the marriage for financial reasons. As Archie awaits the arrival of Baby Doll's 20th birthday, the day that they are supposed to consummate their marriage, he faces interference from business rival Silva Vacarro (Eli Wallach), who plots to seduce Baby Doll away from Meighan.
9. Viva Zapata! (1952)
Mexican rancher Emiliano Zapata (Marlon Brando) becomes a revolutionary when corrupt President Porfirio Diaz (Fay Roope) ignores the needs of his people. Zapata, his brother Eufemio (Anthony Quinn) and northern rebel Pancho Villa (Alan Reed) band together behind Diaz's political opponent, Francisco Madero (Harold Gordon). But when Madero's administration, particularly General Victoriano Huerta (Frank Silvera), proves just as corrupt as the one it replaced, Zapata is spurred to further action.
8. Wild River (1960)
Eager to further his career, ambitious Tennessee Valley Authority administrator Chuck Glover (Montgomery Clift) journeys to a small town to oversee the clearing of the valley in preparation for the construction of a new dam. His plans meet with opposition in the form of the town's stubborn matriarch, 80-year-old Ella Garth (Jo Van Fleet), who refuses to leave. As Glover attempts to convince Garth, he falls in love with her granddaughter, Carol Garth Baldwin (Lee Remick).
7. Splendor in the Grass (1961)
Bud (Warren Beatty) and his high school sweetheart, Deanie (Natalie Wood), are weighed down by their parents' oppressive expectations, which threaten the future of their relationship. Deanie's mother (Audrey Christie) and Bud's father (Pat Hingle) caution their children against engaging in a sexual relationship, but for opposing reasons: Deanie's mother thinks Bud won't marry a girl with loose morals, while Bud's father is afraid of marriage and pregnancy that would ruin Bud's future at Yale.
6. America, America (1963)
Stavros Topouzoglou (Stathis Giallelis) is a young Greek man living in an area under Turkish oppression, who wants nothing more than to go to America. Stavros travels to Constantinople, enduring difficulties along the way that lead to the loss of all his family's funds. Rejecting any possibility for money, work or marriage that doesn't involve sailing to America, he defiantly hangs on to the dream, but his extreme determination may cost him his life.
5. East of Eden (1955)
In this film based on John Steinbeck's epic novel, Cal Trask (James Dean), the son of a California farmer (Raymond Massey), feels that his father cares only about his brother, Aron (Richard Davalos). When Cal embarks on a business venture to gain the favor of his dad, he finds himself dealing with his estranged mother (Jo Van Fleet), now the owner of a brothel, and tensions in the family rise even further when he begins to fall for Aron's girlfriend, Abra (Julie Harris).
4. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Based on the play by Tennessee Williams, this renowned drama follows troubled former schoolteacher Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) as she leaves small-town Mississippi and moves in with her sister, Stella Kowalski (Kim Hunter), and her husband, Stanley (Marlon Brando), in New Orleans. Blanche's flirtatious Southern-belle presence causes problems for Stella and Stanley, who already have a volatile relationship, leading to even greater conflict in the Kowalski household.
3. A Face in the Crowd (1957)
Ambitious young radio producer Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal) finds a charming rogue named Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes (Andy Griffith) in an Arkansas drunk tank and puts him on the air. Soon, Rhodes' local popularity gets him an appearance on television in Memphis, which he parlays into national network stardom that he uses to endorse a presidential candidate for personal gain. But the increasingly petulant star's ego, arrogance and womanizing threaten his rise to the top.
2. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945)
This adaptation of the classic novel tells the story of young Francie Nolan (Peggy Ann Garner) who yearns for life beyond her Brooklyn apartment building. While her daily routine is difficult, she makes the best of her situation, living with her hard-working mother (Dorothy McGuire), alcoholic father (James Dunn) and tough little brother (Ted Donaldson). Encouraged by her kind but irresponsible dad, Francie struggles to keep her hopes up and persevere despite all the odds against her.
1. On the Waterfront (1954)
Dockworker Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) had been an up-and-coming boxer until powerful local mob boss Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) persuaded him to throw a fight. When a longshoreman is murdered before he can testify about Friendly's control of the Hoboken waterfront, Terry teams up with the dead man's sister Edie (Eva Marie Saint) and the streetwise priest Father Barry (Karl Malden) to testify himself, against the advice of Friendly's lawyer, Terry's older brother Charley (Rod Steiger).