The Wild One is a 1953 American film directed by László Benedek and produced by Stanley Kramer. It is famed for Marlon Brando's iconic portrayal of a motorcycle gang leader Johnny Strabler, and is considered the original outlaw biker film, and the first to examine American outlaw motorcycle gang violence.The film's screenplay was based on Frank Rooney's short story "The Cyclists' Raid", published in the January 1951 Harper's Magazine and anthologized in The Best American Short Stories 1952.