The smokily erotic ambience of Josef Von Sternberg's silent Docks of New York is best appreciated on a big theatrical screen--but only if the available print is at the very least second-generation. George Bancroft plays a two-fisted ship's stoker on shore leave. He saves Betty Compson from committing suicide; though the girl displays little gratitude, the inebriated Bancroft impulsively marries her. After he sobers up, Bancroft is prepared to set sail and leave his new wife waiting for
him...perhaps forever. The story is secondary to the virtuosity of the direction and camerawork (one scene is framed in the eye of a needle!) Considered by many to be Von Sternberg's greatest film, Docks of New York is a prime example of the silent cinema at its zenith. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
In a way lost to contemporary social-work movies, von Sternberg's unsentimental poetic realism ennobles his lower-class protagonists through beauty. Classic.
It fulfills their requirements, somewhat obscure to this reviewer, of rhythm, plasticity and unity. In simpler and more popular terms, it seems to be exceptionally good motion picture entertainment.
... a turn-of-the-century bowery answer to Sunrise, with a romantic idealism fighting its way out of hard-scrabble lives and resigned characters of the waterfront culture.
visually evocative and narratively intriguing, such that even its generally terrible ending can't quite undermine the overall sense that you have just seen something profoundly of its time and ahead of it
In "The Docks of New York," Bill Roberts(George Bancroft) is a stoker on board of a steamboat that is about to dock for a night in New York. As such, he has plans but is warned not to be late for the boat's departure in the morning. Those same plans hit a snag when Bill dives into the harbor to rescue Mae(Betty
Compson) who just tried to kill herself. As she recovers her wits, they get to know each other. Just after he shows off his tattoos, she pops the question.
"The Docks of New York" is an engrossing and lively film about people in the lowest rungs of life who are not so much given a reprieve, but just the barest glimmer of hope. At the start, Mae has given up on any possibilties for her future while Bill takes advantage of whatever fun he can find for himself, when he is not at his grueling job, to enjoy himself and forget everything else. All of which is set in a close knit community of people who look out for each other when they have nothing else.
August 4, 2011
Walter M.
Super Reviewer
If the characters in this movie thought they had it bad in 1928, they should have waited a year. As it stands, a basic movie of rough man and tainted lady getting married a few hours after they met.
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