The Docks of New York (1928)

Director:

Josef von Sternberg

Writers:

Jules Furthman (story)
Julian Johnson (titles)
(more)

Release Date:

29 September 1928 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Romance

Plot:

A blue-collar worker on New York's depressed waterfront finds his life changed after he saves a woman attempting suicide.

Plot Keywords:

Stoker | Waterfront | Dock | Waterfront Bar | Brooklyn Bridge

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

George Bancroft	...	Bill Roberts
Betty Compson	...	Mae
Olga Baclanova	...	His Wife - Lou (as Baclanova)
Clyde Cook	...	'Sugar' Steve
Mitchell Lewis	...	Andy, the Third Engineer
Gustav von Seyffertitz	...	Hymn Book Harry
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Richard Alexander	...	Lou's Sweetheart (uncredited)
May Foster	...	Mrs. Crimp (uncredited)
George Irving	...	Night Court judge (uncredited)
John Kelly	...	Sailor Barfly (uncredited)
Charles McMurphy	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Guy Oliver	...	The Crimp (uncredited)
Bob Reeves	...	Court Bailiff (uncredited)
Lillian Worth	...	Steve's Girl (uncredited)

Directed by
Josef von Sternberg

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Jules Furthman		story and screenplay
Julian Johnson		titles
John Monk Saunders		suggested by "The Dock Walloper"

Produced by
J.G. Bachmann	....	associate producer
Josef von Sternberg	....	producer

Original Music by
Robert Israel		(2010 Composer New Score)
Donald Sosin		(Composer)

Cinematography by
Harold Rosson

Film Editing by
Helen Lewis

Art Direction by
Hans Dreier

Production Management
B.P. Schulberg	....	general manager

Other crew
Jesse L. Lasky	....	presenter
Adolph Zukor	....	presenter

Production Companies

• Paramount Pictures

Distributors

• Paramount Pictures (1928) (USA) (theatrical)
• Paramount Pictures (1987) (USA) (VHS)
• Criterion Collection, The (2010) (USA) (DVD) (Included in "Three Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg")

Also Known As:

Runtime:

USA:76 min | Argentina:76 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Silent

Certification:

Argentina:13 | USA:Not Rated

Filming Locations:

Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Included among the '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die', edited by Steven Jay Schneider.

Quotes:

Lou:Until I got married, I was decent.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Historia del cine: Epoca muda (1983) (V)

A masterpiece

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.