I’ve actually had this on my media server for quite a while unwatched, so I was really glad that Jeremy gave me the boost to go ahead and watch it. Unfortunately, I’ve had it for long enough that I have no idea if it had the score he recommended (Gaylord Carter) or not, but I didn’t mind whatever music was with it, so I guess it was all right.
Josef von Sternberg is kind of hit or miss with me – I’ve mostly seen his films with Marlene Dietrich, and I loved Shanghai Express, but am only fair to middling on the other two or three I’ve seen. I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this, but it’s a fairly simply story of a boilerman (George Bancroft) on leave from his boat saving a girl (Betty Compson) from committing suicide by the docks and then falling for her.
