Le Long des quais...

Ben Lyons is a reporter assigned to cover the San Diego waterfront. Someone has been smuggling Chinese people in, and Lyons thinks it's Ernest Torrence in his last role. He also tries to seduce Torrence's daughter, Claudette Colbert.. but she's interested in love, not just sex.

The copy I looked at was the result of a recent restoration. While the sound was perfect, the visuals were a bit off.

Which pretty much covers how I feel about the movie. There's potentially interestingly written characters, like Hobart Cavanaugh's "One Punch McCoy", but they never seem to affect Ben Lyon's mood. He hates his job, he wants the story, he desires Colbert, and nothing anyone does -- including him -- seems to change that. Miss Colbert swimming naked in the sea, indicated S&M overtones in a torture chamber from Spanish days, even Miss Colbert cleaning the windows of his place so he can actually sea the waterfront doesn't affect him, even with a mandatory happy ending to the script, and that's why I think this movie isn't a pre-code classic.

Ben Lyon and a thirty year old Claudette Colbert star in this "newspaper reporter stumbles into something big" deal. Lyon is reporter Joe Miller, who bumps into Julie Kirk.. she just HAPPENS to be the daughter of smuggler Eli Kirk, but Miller wants the chance to investigate. This one moves a bit slow, and we spend a lot of time following the fishing antics of Julie's father. Miller discovers quite a bit about the father, but will have to follow it through. Based on the book by Max Miller. Miller also wrote "Hell and High Water", but Turner Classics must not have that one, since there are no rating votes on that. There IS quite a bit of bio information at the Online Archive of California, apparently from his collection of papers at U.C. San Diego. Interesting to note that the lead is a reporter named "Miller", in a story written by a reporter named "Miller"... Film directed by James Cruze, who had started as an actor in the wee days of silent films, but crossed over to directing in the 1920s. Lyon had been in silent films for YEARS, but Colbert had only been in the biz a couple years. It's pretty good. Drags in some places. Story itself is pretty solid... just moves kind of slow.

In his 1976 book CLAUDETTE COLBERT, film historian William Everson writes extensively about I COVER THE WATERFRONT, praising it as one of Colbert's best films and as containing one of her best performances. Everson's book was one in the series edited by Ted Sennett, THE PYRAMID ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE MOVIES.

In discussing the movie, Everson references scenes which are not found in the 60 minute print in existence today. (Another reviewer states the original movie is 72 minutes long.) Here is an excerpt from Everson's text which refers to the missing scenes: ". . . there seem to be years of world-weariness compressed into the tone of Colbert's voice in her one line 'Who cares about tomorrow?' as she rolls over into the embrace of Ben Lyon, before an off-screen seduction. In the scene where she visits the bordello to collect her father, there's a wonderful combination of humor, resignation and the implication that this is a frequent procedure, when she good-naturedly says she'll wait for him, as he's still 'busy' upstairs. When she finds he's been 'rolled,' her mood changes to one of fury. Transformed into a fighting demon, she lashes out at his companion, retrieves the money, and then, as the floozie dissolves into tears, has a change of heart and peels off a bill for her. 'Here, I guess you've earned it!', is her exit line as she propels her father homeward."

In the existing 60 minute version, I COVER THE WATERFRONT is a valuable piece of film history. How much more valuable it would be to have the missing scenes restored.

Although some aspects of the film don't quite work, "I Cover the Waterfront" is a pretty good atmospheric drama with some good moments. The setting works very well for a story of suspense and crime, and the good story mostly makes up for the less impressive elements of the movie.

Joe Miller (Ben Lyon) is reporter assigned to find interesting stories along the waterfront. His obsession is to prove that ship captain Eli Kirk is involved in a smuggling operation with an occasional murder thrown in. When Miller has a chance meeting with Kirk's charming daughter Julie (Claudette Colbert), he seizes the opportunity to get information about her father. He quickly becomes enamored of Julie, and find himself with conflicting loyalties. Some of the story that follows is predictable, but there are some moments of tension and some good scenes.

The waterfront setting is done nicely, and it makes a good background to the events in the plot. It also includes an exciting and realistic shark-fishing scene. On the other hand, there are some features that are less effective or even a bit dated: for example, the very callous attitudes of all of the characters towards Chinese immigrants, and Miller's irritating sidekick, who is supposed to provide comic relief by his habitual drunkenness, but who is really just an annoyance that contributes nothing whatsoever to the plot.

Overall, this is an interesting film despite a few flaws, and it is worth watching for anyone who likes films of the era.

This movie surprised me again and again with its unexpected plot twists. Movies of this era are usually so predictable. It has a giant hideous shark and a scenes with this shark in the water that are genuinely terrifying. I did not expect effects from this era to stand up.

There is a lot of distressing racist dialogue deprecating Chinese people.

Claudette Colbert is like a fireplace. She radiates warmth, friendliness and enthusiasm. She has alarmingly thin eyebrows and overly thick face powder, but you get used to it. If she were in movies today, she could hold her own. She has that indefinable something.

There is also a pretty racy scene when a women in a bar picks up the sea captain. I was shocked at how direct it was about what was going on. This must have blown the socks off the audience back in 1933.