The Docks of New York (1928)

Country: USA

Released: September 16th, 1928

Genre: Drama

Directed by: Josef von Sternberg

Produced by: Josef von Sternberg

Written by: Jules Furthman

Watching The Docks of New York made me realize that it's been a while since I saw a movie on this list that made a huge impression on me. What I mean is that there hasn't been a film since perhaps The General that's evoked some deep emotional response, whether it be absolute praise (like Dr. Caligari or The Thief of Baghdad) or pure loathing (a la Dr. Mabuse and The Birth of a Nation). Sure The Unknown was pretty great but beyond that most movies have largely been very lukewarm.

As you may have already guessed, The Docks of New York is unfortunately no different.

Docks basically tells the story of the most aloof group of people trying to be romantic with one another. Seriously, if these people kept their cards any closer to their chest they'd have to get a doctor to fish them out of their lungs. The film tells the story of Bill Roberts (George Bancroft), a rough and tumble sailor who don't take no sass from no one. Bill is manly. That is his personality in a nutshell. He serves to be the film's proto-male and nothing more, allowing male audiences to project their fantasies onto his inflated (and frankly archaic) model of hyper-masculinity. He regularly picks fights, which he always wins, drinks like a camel, brandishes tattoos on his pronounced biceps, and is about as warm and emotive as a brick. He is a MAN, back in a time when being a MAN meant being strong, rowdy, and emotionally distant. He meets a mysterious young girl named Mae (Betty Compson) and slowly falls for her. And when I say she's mysterious I mean the CIA couldn't figure out the bitch's backstory if they took a car battery to the director's balls. She keeps hinting at some dark, mysterious backstory, which is heavily emphasized as a central part of her character what with her attempted suicide and what not, but they never explain what it is. Like never. There's mystery and then there's cinematically cockteasing your audience and frankly I eventually got kind of sick of it. But anyways, in the pattern of old-timey relationships Bill and Mae get married after their first date. Then... that's it really. The rest of the movie is basically answering whether Bill can abandon his lone-wolf lifestyle and learn to care. Short answer, "yes."

Docks is a great movie that suffers from one fatal flaw: it's boring.

This is weird because nearly everything is done right. The characters are interesting, at least at first when their mystery still hasn't lost it's novelty. Bancroft and Compson have pretty decent chemistry, and I gotta say that Compson is quite alluring. She has a very "old-hollywood" cuteness about her that makes for some appealing eye-candy.

I mean she's no Rudolf Valentino but I'll take it.

Furthermore the directing is also very well done. There's a vividness to the way shots are composed that grabbed my attention. Shots like this:

this

and this...

... all caught my eye because I've grown accustom to not seeing depth in my movies. The extra dimension couples with a mobile camera, that'll pan across a rowdy bar scene in a single, uninterrupted shot, to breath life and mobility into otherwise stale scenes. There were moments that looked directly inspired by Der Letzte Mann, and I certainly appreciate the effort.

Lastly the aesthetic is really well executed. The aloofness of the characters carries a weighty world-weariness heavily reminiscent of later noir films. Watching Bill and Mae interact occasionally felt almost like watching Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman trade sharp banter on Casablanca. 

So then why is this film boring?

Simply put, it drags on. A lot. Even with a run time of under ninety minutes it was very clear that there just wasn't enough content to justify the length. Emotional states are left to drag on, and while that may have worked in a slow-burn movie experience kind of way there just isn't enough plot to back it up. It certainly has its livelier moments, sure. I personally loved when Bill and Mae get married and they bring in this strict looking priest (Gustav von Seyffertitz) to mediate.

One would expect a stern-faced man like that to reject such a farcical wedding (after all the only attendants were horny drunks yelling and getting plastered over the proceedings), and initially he does. But when he sees Mae's disappointed face his heart softens and he goes through with the affair, instantly making him the most compelling character for me. 

But these moments are few and far between. Truly this feels like a movie that's begging for dialogue. I would not be surprised if they had originally planned to use synchronized audio but half-way through preproduction the studio decided to slash the budget and they couldn't afford it. Watching Mae and Bill have an actual conversation would have allowed their banter to carry the slower moments. Unfortunately the film explores certain emotions that are just too complex to express solely visually, and the result is that Docks lacks that extra smidge of emotionally heft.

The Docks of New York is the most interesting boring movie I've seen. Quite the dubious honour, I'm aware, but no movie has yet to come so close to being great only to just miss is.