I Cover the Waterfront
by James Cruze
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Ben Lyon, Claudette Colbert, Ernest Torrence, Hobart Cavanaugh, Maurice BlackDirector: James Cruze
Cinematographer: Ray June
Editor: Grant Whytock
Producer: Edward Small
Writer: Jack Jevne
Writer: Max Miller
Writer: Wells Root
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 75 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-01-27
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Alpha Video
Movie Reviews of I Cover the Waterfront
Movie Review: Stylish Pre-code Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
"I'll be seein' you." -- Ben Lyon
"You've seen enough of me already." -- Claudette Colbert
Everything about this pre-code film from 1933 is stylish, including a lovely Claudette Colbert and Ben Lyon in one of his best roles. Director James Cruz and photographer Ray June used a lens wipe technique to transition from scene to scene and the harbor is beautifully shot. Based on Max Miller's book, Wells Root's screenplay is frank and mature rather than risque, separating this pre-code film from others. It is steeped in reality rather than sensationalism and for that reason remains today one of the best from those first few years of sound films.
A young Claudette Colbert gives a subtle performance as Julie Kirk, the daughter of a salty smuggler along the harbor. There is nothing subtle about her magnetism, however, which lights up the screen. Ben Lyon also shines as newsman Joseph Miller. Bored and after a big story that will take him away from the waterfront, he decides to romance Julie in order to get to her father, Eli Kirk (Ernest Torrence), who has been smuggling Chinese into the harbor with deadly results. Colbert and Lyon are terrific as the flirting begins to feel like something more at the same time the Coast Guard closes in on her dad, and Joseph his big story.
Cruz films everything that happens between Julie and Joseph, both the serious and the playful, in a natural way. It is both a frank and romantic view of two people feeling each other out and slowly beginning to love one another. Even the scene on the beach when a naked Julie waits behind a rock for the brash Joseph, whom she's just met, to give her back her clothes brings a smile rather than a raised eyebrow. A scene where Julie keeps her pop from getting rolled at Mother Morgan's "Boarding House" but feels sorry for the girl and leaves her some money is not there for shock, but to show the heart and character of Julie.
Hobart Cavanaugh gives good support as Miller's often drunk news pal McCoy. Once Eli is shot and on the lam, Julie will have to choose between the man she once trusted and saving her father. The famous scene onboard the Santa Madre prison ship where a shakled Julie doesn't put up much of a fuss when Joseph finally gets the kisses he's been begging for is handled with sexy charm. A fine score which includes the famous title song adds to the special mood of this great pre-code classic. A must see film for Colbert fans and fans of pre-code films.
Summary of I Cover the Waterfront
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