Because Holland-America wouldn't allow a film crew inside a ship, and because there was no ship available on Pier C, KO Dugan's burial (not exactly accidentally) under falling boxes of "good Irish whiskey" and Father Barry's eulogy of him were filmed on the Brooklyn piers. (Curiously, Edie suddenly appears in this scene among the horrified longshoremen. She has a way of turning up in the oddest circumstances, usually when some disaster has occurred.) A footnote to film history: The beer can that strikes Father Barry as he stands over Dugan's crushed body ("Boys, this is my church.") actually opened a gash in the actor's head. Director Kazan wanted to stop to tend the cut, but Malden insisted on finishing the scene. The choice was a good one. For one thing, it earned Malden the respect of the Hoboken longshoremen. For another, it made possible one of the movie's most gripping moments: the ascent of a bleeding Barry -- accompanied by Dugan's body and a limp Pop Doyle sitting beside it -- on the platform from which the Irish whiskey had fallen. Adding to the poignancy of the tableau, Pop silently offers Barry a cigarette while they are rising. 
|
