Docks of Berlin

The restored silent film The Docks of New York offers all sorts of enticing interconnections. Directed by Josef von Sternberg, The Docks of New York gives you a highly stylized view of a dive bar hotel back when New York was still a seaport.

George Bancroft plays a steam ship stoker who has a night on shore during which he rescues a woman who has just thrown herself into the East River. She is played seductively by Betty Compson. There is lots of lush lighting in the foggy night. George Bancroft swaggers around in his slick black jacket like he’s the tough old uncle Robert Mitchum tried to emulate. And Betty Compson is clearly the prototype for Marlene Dietrich. She vamps about like Courtney Love, looks enticingly disheveled throughout the movie. Clothes, putting them on, taking them off, runs as a theme throughout the movie. In fact, the plot ends with a court room drama about a tight-fitting, glittery dress.

There is a swath of restored silent movies out there to be seen. Makes you realize people made slinky, sexy movies long before sound and color. The restoration slows the movie down, gives the images a three dimensional quality, the lighting suddenly has depth and when the actors move you can see the sensuality in their swagger and stutter.

Just from reading the back of DVD packages, you would have thought that Josef von Sternberg was a Jewish Austrian count, who rose to fame in Berlin and then fled the Nazis. Yeah, but turns out he grew up in Queens, dropped out of Jamaica high school, and hung around as a kid in NY and NJ movie studios. Sure he became famous when he made Dietrich famous, but he shot these cinematographic wonders before going to Berlin, thereby complicating the old claim that it was German Expressionism that introduced Hollywood to the wonders of atmospheric effects in movies. --Maybe it was German intellectuals from Queens who learned their tricks in Berlin.

Can’t wait to see the next one in the queue.