Don't Leave Home without Him

"As Malden recalled in 1991 in The Times, Corridan 'was a Jesuit priest who taught law to the longshoremen. . . . The scene in the hold of the ship, he wrote at least 80% of that speech. A man came to him and said, "Father John, I can't get a chit to go to work. Now I haven't gotten a chit in two months." He says, "You go in there and demand a chit even if you take it out of his hands. . . ." And the man did, and two days later he was found in the East River,' nearly dead.
"The man survived, but the next morning Corridan stood on a box on the dock and delivered the sermon that inspired Budd Schulberg's screenplay.
"'Some people think the crucifixion only took place on Calvary. They better wise up,' Malden's priest says in the film. 'Every time the mob puts the crusher on a good man, tries to stop him from doing his duty as a citizen, it's a crucifixion.'"

Dennis McLellan in the Los Angeles Times writes an obit for Karl Malden.