The Docks of New York

Bill, a ship's stoker, comes ashore for one night in port. He rescues a woman who has thrown herself into the water, takes her to a saloon, and there they get married as a joke. In the morning he has to be back on the ship. The film concerns what happens after that single night. The subject is not romance but whether two people who own nothing will feel responsible for each other. Bill is not a man who knows how to promise; the ending is not a declaration of love but an acceptance. The form is among the most beautiful in silent cinema. Josef von Sternberg builds the docks out of fog, smoke and light on water, and indoors, nets, ropes and gauze keep dividing the frame. Faces are often half in shadow, which is the signature of the Sternberg to come. The film was made on the eve of sound and is one of the last works of his silent period. Commercial interest on release was limited; today it sits among his most admired films. George Bancroft plays the stoker, Betty Compson the woman and Olga Baclanova the saloon owner's wife. Who it is for: viewers who like silent cinema and stories told in images. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a dense plot; the narrative is deliberately small and runs almost entirely across one night.