Initially it was very easy to forget you were watching a narrative film and to just imagine it was a documentary maker's homage to the seedier docklands of New York. Down in the ship's boiler room - George Bancroft and Clyde Cook didn't seem like actors, they actually looked like stokers, dreaming of going ashore. And the eerie silhouette of the girl on the pier - then the splash!! I really think that "The Docks of New York" is a triumph of von Sternberg's visual artistry. Mists and shadows, especially compelling was the scene when Bancroft carried the bedraggled Compson along the waterfront to her shabby room.
Just as he had given Evelyn Brent's career a new lease of life, von Sternberg proceeded to do the same thing for Betty Compson. Although "The Docks of New York" was advertised as her comeback picture, according to Betty, she had never been away. In a chapter devoted to her in "From Hollywood" by DeWitt Bodeen, he chronicles her ups and downs of the twenties. She divorced her husband, director James Cruze, and was immediately besieged by creditors (to do with his bankruptcy). She then realised most of the major studios thought she was a has been but instead of taking it to heart, she went over to Chadwick, a poverty row studio and worked so hard she got back into shape and once again had the big studios bidding for her services. Another actor von Sternberg rescued was George Bancroft, who spent most of the 20s as a Western badman albeit with a hearty laugh. First casting him as the charismatic gangster in "Underworld" then as the burly stoker, Bill Roberts, in "The Docks of New York". Bancroft was larger than life!!!
The story is simple, Roberts rescues a prostitute after she has thrown herself in the river. Initially hoping to paint the town red before departing the next morning, he takes a shine to Mae's vulnerableness and convinces her a good time is better than a watery grave. After carousing at the dockside tavern Bill gets carried away and proposes to Mae and after much coaxing she accepts - but she is serious as is the parson "Hymn Book Harry" (Gustav Von Seyffertitz) whose withering look upon those assembled tells you just what he thinks of them. Come the morning Bill is preparing to leave, treating the whole thing as a joke, but back on the ship......
The music is wonderful with an orchestral score that has a real feel for the gritty reality of the docks - it also incorporates popular songs of the day "A Bird in a Gilded Cage", "The Sidewalks of New York" etc. I should have realised it was the brilliant Robert Israel, my favourite composer of silent film scores.
Making just as much of a dazzling impression is Baclanova as a distinctly unglamorous waterside worker. She is married to Bill's brutish boss, but tells Mae "I was decent too - until I got married"!!!
Just as he had given Evelyn Brent's career a new lease of life, von Sternberg proceeded to do the same thing for Betty Compson. Although "The Docks of New York" was advertised as her comeback picture, according to Betty, she had never been away. In a chapter devoted to her in "From Hollywood" by DeWitt Bodeen, he chronicles her ups and downs of the twenties. She divorced her husband, director James Cruze, and was immediately besieged by creditors (to do with his bankruptcy). She then realised most of the major studios thought she was a has been but instead of taking it to heart, she went over to Chadwick, a poverty row studio and worked so hard she got back into shape and once again had the big studios bidding for her services. Another actor von Sternberg rescued was George Bancroft, who spent most of the 20s as a Western badman albeit with a hearty laugh. First casting him as the charismatic gangster in "Underworld" then as the burly stoker, Bill Roberts, in "The Docks of New York". Bancroft was larger than life!!!
The story is simple, Roberts rescues a prostitute after she has thrown herself in the river. Initially hoping to paint the town red before departing the next morning, he takes a shine to Mae's vulnerableness and convinces her a good time is better than a watery grave. After carousing at the dockside tavern Bill gets carried away and proposes to Mae and after much coaxing she accepts - but she is serious as is the parson "Hymn Book Harry" (Gustav Von Seyffertitz) whose withering look upon those assembled tells you just what he thinks of them. Come the morning Bill is preparing to leave, treating the whole thing as a joke, but back on the ship......
The music is wonderful with an orchestral score that has a real feel for the gritty reality of the docks - it also incorporates popular songs of the day "A Bird in a Gilded Cage", "The Sidewalks of New York" etc. I should have realised it was the brilliant Robert Israel, my favourite composer of silent film scores.
Making just as much of a dazzling impression is Baclanova as a distinctly unglamorous waterside worker. She is married to Bill's brutish boss, but tells Mae "I was decent too - until I got married"!!!