☆ ☆ ☆ ½
The
Docks of New York (1928) – J. von Sternberg
Vividly realized silent tale of a stoker
who comes ashore to find drunken fun and winds up rescuing a girl from drowning
and marrying her. One of von Sternberg’s
late silent films (before he hooked up with Marlene Dietrich), showing his
interest in “painting with light” – there is smoke or fog in many of the
scenes. George Bancroft is compellingly
lout-like but ultimately sympathetic as he overcomes his primitive male
instincts to sacrifice himself for his “wife”.
Betty Compson has less to do and looks rather ambivalent about Bancroft
but throws her lot in with him anyway; such may have been the fate of a
good-time gal in the 1920’s – no other options.
Unlike other silent films of this period, von Sternberg doesn’t take
things truly wide, trying to stun us with amazing set-pieces (a la Murnau), so
I was a bit disappointed. But keeping
the drama small and focusing on the characterizations may be the strategy that
led to his later success with Marlene – it was all about her and everything
else was stripped away (or really everything else, indulgent as it became,
glorified her).
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