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Overrated

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Ben Lyon and a thirty year old Claudette Colbert star in this "newspaper reporter stumbles into something big" deal. Lyon is reporter Joe Miller, who bumps into Julie Kirk.. she just HAPPENS to be the daughter of smuggler Eli Kirk, but Miller wants the chance to investigate. This one moves a bit slow, and we spend a lot of time following the fishing antics of Julie's father. Miller discovers quite a bit about the father, but will have to follow it through. Based on the book by Max Miller. Miller also wrote "Hell and High Water", but Turner Classics must not have that one, since there are no rating votes on that. There IS quite a bit of bio information at the Online Archive of California, apparently from his collection of papers at U.C. San Diego. Interesting to note that the lead is a reporter named "Miller", in a story written by a reporter named "Miller"... Film directed by James Cruze, who had started as an actor in the wee days of silent films, but crossed over to directing in the 1920s. Lyon had been in silent films for YEARS, but Colbert had only been in the biz a couple years. It's pretty good. Drags in some places. Story itself is pretty solid... just moves kind of slow.

On the San Diego coast, hard-nosed reporter Ben Lyon (H. Joseph "Joe" Miller) suspects nasty seafaring Captain Ernest Torrence (as Eli Kirk) is part of a smuggling racket. Indeed, Mr. Torrence is cleverly shipping illegal Chinese immigrants to California. But, neither Mr. Lyon nor the local Coast Guard can catch him in the act. And, Lyon's editor wants him to cover stories like the report of a nude woman swimming in the ocean. Wearing only a bathing cap, but conveniently posed behind a large rock, the naked woman turns out to be beautiful Claudette Colbert (as Julie). When Lyon learns Ms. Colbert is Torrence's daughter, he decides a quick romance with the attractive Colbert might net him the proof he needs to bag the crook. This story, while flawed in a couple of important ways, is full of clever touches. The opening credits are noticeably well-done, in a "newspaper" style, they explain "I Cover the Waterfront" will be about, "The unique and personal experiences of a newspaper reporter covering a Pacific waterfront." Lyons and Torrence contribute fine, dependable characterizations. Colbert isn't entirely believable as Torrence's salty daughter; but, this could have been fixed with some slight script revisions. For example, Colbert could have been reconnecting with her father, after a long absence. Still, Colbert looks great from any angle.Director James Cruze handles his players marvelously, with the most delightful scene occurring when Lyon takes Colbert on a date to the torture chamber of the "Prison Ship Santa Madre" and engages in her some bondage. "I can take it!" says a satisfied Colbert. Not so successful is the moment when Lyon slits a shark open to reveal an immigrant inside, which defies credulity. Sly innuendo is provided by "One Punch" Hobart Cavanaugh (as McCoy), Lyon's drunken companion. When Lyon pokes him in bed, Mr. Cavanaugh sheepishly catchphrases, "Not tonight, Josephine!" (remember, Lyon's character is named "Joseph"). "Women are all alike," he says later, "When you need them most, they are conspicuous by their absence." Credit writers Max Miller, Wells Root, and Jack Jevne.******* I Cover the Waterfront (5/19/33) James Cruze ~ Ben Lyon, Claudette Colbert, Ernest Torrence, Hobart Cavanaugh

This film was excellently directed by James Cruze, best known for 'The Great Gabbo' (1929) with Erich von Stroheim, and the Will Rogers vehicle, 'Mr. Skitch' (1933). Cruze died rather young, and has never been properly appreciated. Here he has made a gritty and realistic drama of the California waterfront with lots of harrowing location footage shot at sea showing the dangers of shark fishing. Apparently, great white sharks were hunted by harpoon from small rowboats, and here we see just how wrong this can go. The story is all about Claudette Colbert, here as radiant as ever she was, despite the fact that all the characters in the film including herself are morally ambivalent at best. Her father is a ruthless people smuggler who does not hesitate to throw a Chinese illegal immigrant overboard to save himself from discovery by the Coast Guard, but despite being this sort of character, he is powerfully played by character actor Ernest Torrence as someone entitled to our sympathy, and Claudette goes on loving him despite his crimes, which surely must have left some touches of mildew on her supposedly stainless character? As for her love interest, the dogged newspaper reporter played by Ben Lyon, who is sick of the waterfront and wants to go back to the sanity of Vermont, his own character flaws are wide enough to drive a rather large fishing boat through. All of these iniquities are glossed over, as we are encouraged to root for the romance of this couple, and we very quickly drown in the deep pools of Claudette's soulful eyes (which, by the way, has anybody ever noticed, are too far apart). This is absolutely not a sugary Hollywood drama. Its moral ambiguity possibly makes it all the more interesting.

I COVER THE WATERFRONT (United Artists, 1933), directed by James Cruze, based on "the unique and personal experiences of a newspaper reporter covering a Pacific waterfront" by Max Miller, is an interesting yet old-fashioned tale made plausible thanks to its interesting cast, namely Claudette Colbert, on an assignment away from her home studio of Paramount, in an against-type performance as a tough waterfront girl, with screen veteran Ernest Torrence as her rugged fisherman father. While Colbert's name heads the cast during the introductory title, it's Ben Lyon, in one of his finer screen roles at this point, whose name comes first during its second cast introduction (through newspaper clippings) and closing casting credits, and with good reason, too, because the plot revolves around his character suggested on Max Miller, while Torrence, who died before the film's release, being the most interesting of the two leads mainly because the way he acquires himself as both brutal and likable.In a story set against the San Diego waterfront, H. Joseph Miller (Ben Lyon), an investigative reporter, takes up residence in the surrounding area while doing a series of "I Cover the Waterfront" articles for his newspaper. He is determined to get enough evidence on Eli Kirk (Ernest Torrence), whom he suspects is the leader of a smuggling racket. After meeting a girl named Julie (Claudette Colbert), who attracts his attention as well as a nosy busybody (Lillian Harmer) using a peril-scope, by taking her nightly ocean swim without anything on, Miller becomes interested in her, especially after learning she's Kirk's daughter. As gathering enough information about Kirk without her realizing his intentions, Miller comes close to making his catch at the risk of losing his bait.An interesting mix of romance, comedy and drama with risqué dialog added in, I COVER THE WATERFRONT has its share of intense scenes, including Eli Kirk giving orders for his crew to take his smuggled Chinaman, with hands tied behind his back, to be covered up and feet heavily chained so to have him dumped into the ocean and dispose of so not to have the evidence found on board his ship by Coast Guard Randall (Wilfred Lucas) and reporter Miller; the drowned Chinaman fished out of the ocean by Old Chris (Harry Beresford) and Miller taking the body of the "chink" as evidence and placing it on the desk of John Phelps (Purnell B. Pratt), his city editor; Ortegus (Maurice Black), one of Kirk's crew members who, during an attempt to capture a large shark, falling into the ocean and getting a shark attack; and Miller's solving the riddle of "Jonah and the Whale" by discovering Kirk's smuggling method of rum and Chinese immigrants by having them sewn into the bellies of huge dead sharks, and much more. Talk about having an upset stomach.For some amusements, there's Hobart Cavanaugh playing McCoy, Miller's sidekick reporter, with his several attempts to pick up some "nice girls" at Mother Morgan's (Claudia Coleman) Boarding House. While at the same establishment, there's Julie having a confrontation with one of the "ladies of the evening" who had taken her drunken father's money, and demanding for its return. There's even some dark humor set at a Santa Madre Torture Ship museum where Miller demonstrates some torture devises to Julie by having her trapped in one and helpless to his kisses.Not quite as powerful as other waterfront stories: ON THE WATERFRONT (1954) or EDGE OF THE CITY (1957), for example, I COVER THE WATERFRONT shows how raw it could be. Aside from that, it does have its share of great scenes that build up suspense, thanks to its writing staff, leading players and some location scenery. While it's commendable for Colbert to try something different by playing stronger characters, her role as the tough waterfront girl, that have been better suited to the likes of a Jean Harlow or Carole Lombard for example, doesn't come off as hard as it should. Having Colbert as its leading lady is one of the reasons for viewing this one today.Sad to say the prints that have been in circulation since the late 1980s are from a reissue containing different opening score and ten minutes clipped from its original 72 minutes. The reissue even eliminates Torrence's name from the cast altogether as well as the closing cast listing and exit music. While Bob Dorian, former host of American Movie Classics, claimed that AMC never cuts its movies, it did acquire this edited version during its March 1989 presentation. While it's hard to acquire a more concise print to the 1933 original copy these days, a close to complete version containing both the original "I Cover the Waterfront" theme and Torrence's name in the cast, would have to be processed by an old 1980s video Film Classics in clam shell distribution from Kartes Communications, otherwise film enthusiasts might have to wait and hope for a cable channel such as Turner Classic Movies to restore and present a more accurate print to the 1933 original with exit music. (****)