User Reviews

I accept - though it's difficult to do so - that even as late as 1950 a film could be both set and shot in Liverpool with every character born and bred in the city yet not one is capable of a scouse accent and neither audiences nor critics would find anything odd in this, but watching it some 66 years on it's virtually impossible not to be so aware of this that it impairs enjoyment of the film. The big attraction of course was Bobby Newton in yet another pre-Treasure Island entry following which he wasn't allowed to say good morning without rolling his eyes. Although top-billed the story is carried by Avis Scott who is more than up to the task and has been unfairly neglected and this is arguably the only film in which Kathleen Harrison starts out young enough to be pregnant and give birth just off-screen. It's a gritty story and all the better for it and certainly well worth a look.

The story of a poor Liverpool mother (Harrison) and her two daughters, the honest Nora (Harrison) and the reckless Connie (Shaw), covering the fourteen years from 1919 to 1933. There was a father too (Newton) but he was a careless scoundrel and took off for the entire period without ever writing his family, after which he returned, got drunk, and murdered an unpleasant adversary.

Michael Anderson, the director, manages his job comfortably. The acting is fine, with two exception performances -- exceptional because they are outrageously over the top. I mean it.

Robert Newton is his usual scalawag self, cocking his head, smiling with only his lips, his eyebrows doing a dance atop his orbital sockets. Yet he becomes entirely plausible at the end, when meeting his young son for the first time, handing him a tobacco pouch, one of his few belongings. Second prize for overacting goes to Kenneth Griffith who turns his character into a cartoon of selfishness and lust. You've never seen such excess. When he plies Connie with liquor and she goes upstairs to "lie down" for a while, he watches her climb the steps and his eyeballs bug out. He licks his lips -- literally, licks his lips.

Richard Burton has a minor part too but he doesn't overact at all. Knowing what he's capable of, we might find him a little stiff here, though stern and handsome.

It's all about families and character, about their values and responsibilities. The milieu is grimy and dispiriting. The poverty is oppressive, not colorful, but the performances help the story along.

The use of the word 'waterfront' in a film title immediately recalls Elia Kazan's 1954 masterpiece On The Waterfront with Marlon Brando, and whilst (at the time, 30-year old) British director Michael Anderson's Depression-era 1950 film is not of comparable stature to Kazan's effort, perhaps surprisingly there are some commonalities. Most obviously, Robert Newton's waster husband and father, Peter McCabe, returns from another lengthy sea voyage to find his family's fortunes tied to a downturn in trade and job opportunities in 1930s Liverpool. Anderson's film, which is based on the novel by John Brophy, is particularly notable for the unusually sophisticated way in which it references a range of social and human issues, including the impact of poverty, social class, sexual politics and (peripherally) the role of the gutter press, as well as providing insights into 'seafaring communities' and the impact on families (in particular, the women) of the long-term absence of (the typically bread-winning) men.

Anderson's film is reminiscent of Robert Hamer's excellent 1947 'kitchen sink drama', It Always Rains On Sunday, in the way it evokes its working class milieu and portrays the inter-relationships and frictions within families - here, frictions exacerbated by Peter's lengthy absence on a '14-year sea voyage'. We can even forgive the apparent absence of any scouse accents amongst Anderson's cast, by the skilful way in which the film-makers depict the resilient community spirit, captured in a family 'music hall visit' to the Liverpool Empire. Acting-wise, Kathleen Harrison is particularly good as the kind-hearted, idealist wife and mother McCabe, apparently still forgiving for her husband's misdeeds, whilst each of Avis Scott and Susan Shaw as, respectively, the principled daughter, Nora, and her gold-digging sister, Connie, also impress. Nora has bet her future on marriage to the young Richard Burton's ship engineer, Ben Satterthwaite, whilst Sonia is dreaming of a life of leisure with an impressive Kenneth Griffith's well-groomed insurance man, Maurice Bruno. As ever, Newton impresses with the passion he brings to the role and tones down his tendency for over-theatricality, bringing a palpable sense of pathos during the film's climactic scenes, which are undeniably moving.

This raw British working-class drama starts off with husband and father Robert Newton going to see his daughter at school, and telling her that he's boarding a ship as a crew member and won't be back. Oh, and by the way, tell your mother. That doesn't really leave a good impression on daughter Avis Scott so is the one who discovered him when he returns, just as she's getting her life together with happiness with young Richard Burton who is having problems finding a job on a ship during troubled financial times. Wife Kathleen Harrison, a fragile type, found out right after he left that she was pregnant, and now her son is a teenager, doing very well in school, absolutely nothing like his no-good father.

Newton's character is an absolutely wretched man with no good qualities, a drunk who has been fired off of his latest assignment for his violent temper. The other daughter, Susan Shaw, has become involved with the higher class Robin Netscher, but he's under the impression that all waterfront girls are easy girls, and he laughs at her in a humiliating manner when she says she isn't that type of girl, and wants to save herself for marriage. In fact, he humiliates her to the point of telling her that she is not his idea of a girl fit to marry. Not an easy life for the women in this family, although the youngest son does seem to have a good head on his shoulders.

A very powerful film that gives great detail do each of the characters, with everybody having some sort of story. The film however does not really have a conclusion other than just an end. It's a metaphor that explains how the lives of these people are often wrapped in troubles oh, and it's pretty clear what will happen with Newton's character. But some do get a happy ending so it's not all that depressing. Very well filmed with a very raw atmosphere, and featuring some very interesting minor characters, particularly the upstairs neighbor from Harrison who tries to woo Newton into a liaison even though she knows who he is. Pretty gritty stuff for the early 50's, and one of the earliest Burton films where he already shows great promise.

****SPOILERS**** Leaving his impoverish family in Liverpool high and dry in going out to sea merchant marine Peter McCabe, Robert Newton,is gone for almost 15 years not realizing that his wife, Kathleen Harrison, is with child and two daughters Nora & Connie, Avis Scott & Susan Shaw, without any directions in life. Strugging to make ends meet the McCabe family with the added addition of George Alexander, Robin Netscher,somehow sail through life until Papa Peter suddenly shows up unexpectedly one evening drunk as usual after circling the earth a half dozen times on his his un-sea worthy tub of a freighter.

Almost thrown out by his outraged daughter Nora whom, together with her mom and siblings, he deserted 15 years ago the looking for a good time Peter drops into his next door neighbor's apartment Mrs. Gibson, Olive Slone, for a few drinks as well as a romp in the hey with her. It's when Peter finds out that he's the father of a handsome and soon to attend collage 15 year old son-George Alexander-he heads to the nearest pub to celebrate by getting, as if he isn't already, good and smashed! This leads to a drunken brawl with a fellow sailor of his, who's been on his back all the way from South America,ship engineer Michael Brennan whom Peter with his straight edge razor ends up killing him. Now facing life behind bars Peter only wan't to see his son George Alexander before he's put away for good and make up, in the few minutes of freedom he has left, for all the pain and suffering he caused him as well as his family.

There's also the two boyfriends of the McCabe sisters young and high pitched voiced Richard Burton as out of work ship engineer Ben Sattertwaite and insurance salesman on the Liverpool docks Maurice Bruno, Kenneth Griffith, who are the exact opposite of each other. Ben is a sweetheart of a guy towards Nora who want to marry her and raise a family as soon as he can get a job to support them. But on the other hand the set for life and independently wealthy Maurice is a low down creep only looking for action and treating Connie like a, excuse the word, whore even though she's at first, until she found out what a rat he is, in love with him. At the end of the movie Peter finally realizes what a drunken jerk he was and is able to tell his son George Alexander not to end up the way he did a drunk who deserted his family and ended up behind bars for killing someone. The only one of the McCbe family that had an happy ending is Nora who finally tied the knot with her dreamboat of a man the now fully employed ship engineer Ben Satterthwaite who after saying good by was on his way, on his next assignment, headed for the Far East.

WATERFRONT isn't a particularly bad film, but it is rather indistinguishable amid all of the similar fare coming out from the era. The setting is Liverpool, where a struggling family aim to keep their heads above the water without a main breadwinner in the family. There's little in the way of actual story, so this is a character-focused affair, and to its credit this has interesting performances from numerous familiar faces, with Kathleen Harrison focusing things nicely. Robert Newton has a small but memorable turn as the drunken patriarch, while there's a chance to see a callow Richard Burton as a suitor. I thought Kenneth Griffith gave the best, most sleazy turn in the whole film. Imagine a kitchen sink drama a decade before that type of film became popular and you'll have it.