The Docks of New York

Josef von Sternberg is a director not very well known among the normal audience. He is a legend to be learned thoroughly.

The movie is about a ship worker called Bill. He has just one night to spend ashore. He finds a young lady, Mae, trying to commit suicide in the sea. He helps her and takes to the near by bar. Later Bill asks her to marry him on an instant. The bar then gets ready for the wedding at that night. The rest you should watch and enjoy!.

It is hard to believe that the entire movie was shot on a Hollywood sound stage. The set was so perfect to be made up. Josef von Sternberg is always an expert at it.

If you are a movie freak, this movie should be added to the watch list. A worth watch.

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There were three main reasons for seeing 'The Docks of New York', there is always at least one main reason for me that draws me into watching any film. One was my high appreciation for silent films. Two was the idea for the story, which did sound fantastic. Three was Josef von Sternberg, who did many good and above films with one of his regular stars being Marlene Dietrich. His best films, with 'Shanghai Express', 'The Devil is a Woman' and 'The Scarlet Empress' being a few examples, are wonderful even.

For me, 'The Docks of New York' is up there as nearly one of Sternberg's best. As well as one of his most overlooked, though it is regarded highly by many today it is still underseen. It is a real shame that 'The Docks of New York' was a flop at the time, and it was nothing to do with its quality. It was in my view to do with timing, which was not fair to 'The Docks of New York'. Releasing it at the same time as the more ground-breaking 'The Jazz Singer' (despite that film being more historically significant for being the first talkie, this for me is the better film) was a bad and near-suicidal move.

Perhaps the film could have been longer which would have allowed a few of the plot developments to breathe more.

Other than that, 'The Docks of New York' is near-essential viewing and highly recommended if one wants to see what the fuss about Sternberg is about. His direction is typically accomplished and passionately engaged with the material, making a seedy setting look stunning which is not always easy to do. One of the greatest things about 'The Docks of New York' is how it looks, one of the most beautiful looking late silent films to exist in my view. The setting is seedy yet handsome and the cinematography is both luminous and atmospheric, the best imagery looking stunning.

Just as good is the highly effective use of light and shadow, which was a common distinctive thing in Sternberg's films. Absolutely loved the attention to visual detail in this film. The music is haunting enough and at least fits. The story is simple but never dull, thanks to some nice twists and turns that keeps one guessing without losing cohesion and the great chemistry between the leads. Which has tension and one can feel the attraction between them. Just as they do feel the uncompromising grit of the story's atmosphere. It is melodramatic yes but doesn't go overboard on the suds.

All the cast do great, with Olga Baclanova being especially classy in support. George Bancroft has a swaggering intensity but the most challenging role belongs to Betty Compson, and along with Sternberg and the production values her searing performance is the heart, driving force and shining light of the film.

Concluding, really great. 9/10

It was great to see the old New York of the '20's in this movie, only though it's just in a couple of establishment-shots. It still looked so much different of course, with a totally different skyline, without as many and such high skyscrapers as there are this present day.

The build-up of the movie and its drama is done very well. It has a sort of dark and depressing, dirty atmosphere, which suits the movie its time period and themes. The story also all enhances this. I really liked the story, also not in the least that it isn't just another standard written love-story. I also liked how tings came together at the end. The movie really reached a right and satisfying conclusion. The movie however as a whole is a bit too short though perhaps to let all of its drama work out as effective as it perhaps could had. Nevertheless the themes in the movies still work out efficient enough and shows that "The Docks of New York" was a quite edgy and unusual movie for its time.

The movie gets mostly carried by its two main leads, played by George Bancroft and Betty Compson. Both are such compelling characters, greatly and charismatically portrayed by the two main actors, each in their own way. But a complaint would be that's hard at times to always care for the characters. Bill Roberts is one tough hard guy that smacks things around and punches people in the face. And Mae also obviously has some issues and a dark past.

The movie was professionally directed and with some excellent camera-work, that also uses some early moving shots. This also really added up to the movie its quality and atmosphere.

A great unique little film from the silent era!

9/10

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For me, this comes a close second to "Underworld" in Sternberg's films: the twists and turns of the melodramatic plot become ultimately a little too much for me to swallow (a twist too far?), and I found some of the camera devices simply distracting, but even so the film is more or less won by virtue of the impressive acting from all concerned. Betty Compson (who was soon to receive a well-deserved Oscar nomination for her role in the part-talkie "The Barker") stands out as the fragile, cynical girl who has "had too many good times" already but allows herself to believe in the possibility of redemption; Baclanova is memorable as the petty officer's deserted wife, while George Bancroft is a cheerful, callous but not unkindly Colossus of a stoker. The weary, sensitive features of Gustav von Seyffertitz, in a small role as the threadbare Bible-basher who ministers to this godless 'flock', also make a strong impression. The film is almost all atmosphere, but it is atmosphere well-done.

Of course, no waterfront in the world was ever as deliciously seedy as set designer Hans Dreier's in this amazingly atmospheric and evocative masterpiece of late silent cinema. The story is rather tawdry, cheapish even, but plots are very rarely the point of a movie anyway, and Josef von Sternberg has made the perfect film out of next to nothing.

'The Docks of New York' is about a rough and ready stoker, Bill (George Bancroft), on leave for the night. He goes to the Sandbar and gets into a brawl with Hymn-Book Harry (the ever sleazy Gustav von Seyffertitz), and on the way back saves a young girl, Mae the tough kookie (Betty Compson) from drowning herself. Slowly they sorta kinda fall in love and he marries her on the spur of the moment, but what will they do the next morning when Bill is supposed to sail off again? The most astonishing thing about 'The Docks of New York' is its subtlety. We have no heroes or simplified villains here, just people who have had a hard time all their lives and are reluctant to be redeemed. The concept of love in this sneering, loud-mouthed environment is completely alien. "I hope you have better luck than me", says Olga Baclanova's character to Mae on her way to the slammer, "but I doubt it". It is Baclanova who says on the subject of decency that she was decent "before I got married".

It goes without saying that the film is acted as naturalistically as anything we see today, that Compson & Bancroft absolutely shine as the unlikely lovers, grittily played and with no sentimentality. The lighting is superb, photography stupendous, direction acute, and the edition you are most likely to see looks fabulous.