Docks of New York, The (1928)
Docks of New York, The (1928), directed by Josef von Sternberg.
The tough coal stoker has a complicated heart. He features a quiet little smile when shoving someone or punching him out. On his one night ashore he rescues a woman who jumps in the harbor and gets tangled up in her life and in the life of a rough dockside tavern.
It's not so much the story that strikes me in this one as the beauty of the cinematography. By the late silent era many directors achieved a high level of art in their imagery: Hitchcock, Lang, Pabst, but I can't think of anyone who exceeds Sternberg and his cinematographer Harold Rosson in the composition and loveliness of grayscale in this film.
Charlie Chaplin: "The silent picture reached its peak just as it was about to be superseded by sound." This film is now considered the last great film of the silent era but it was eclipsed by goofy talkies that appeared at the same time.
Credit is also due to screenwriter Jules Furthman who helped shape the director's vision. He wrote several screenplays for Sternberg and also for Howard Hawks. Oddly enough I noticed similarities to Hawks: the big crowd scenes where all the unknown characters seem to have their own stories which we will never know.
Watching the background actors I wonder: who were they and what happened to them?
Some of cinematographer Harold Rosson's other films:
Available on Blu-ray from Criterion. The source is in rough shape. The disc includes two new scores by Robert Israel and Joanna Seaton.
