Ben Lyons is a reporter assigned to cover the San Diego waterfront. Someone has been smuggling Chinese people in, and Lyons thinks it's Ernest Torrence in his last role. He also tries to seduce Torrence's daughter, Claudette Colbert.. but she's interested in love, not just sex.
The copy I looked at was the result of a recent restoration. While the sound was perfect, the visuals were a bit off.
Which pretty much covers how I feel about the movie. There's potentially interestingly written characters, like Hobart Cavanaugh's "One Punch McCoy", but they never seem to affect Ben Lyon's mood. He hates his job, he wants the story, he desires Colbert, and nothing anyone does -- including him -- seems to change that. Miss Colbert swimming naked in the sea, indicated S&M overtones in a torture chamber from Spanish days, even Miss Colbert cleaning the windows of his place so he can actually sea the waterfront doesn't affect him, even with a mandatory happy ending to the script, and that's why I think this movie isn't a pre-code classic.
The copy I looked at was the result of a recent restoration. While the sound was perfect, the visuals were a bit off.
Which pretty much covers how I feel about the movie. There's potentially interestingly written characters, like Hobart Cavanaugh's "One Punch McCoy", but they never seem to affect Ben Lyon's mood. He hates his job, he wants the story, he desires Colbert, and nothing anyone does -- including him -- seems to change that. Miss Colbert swimming naked in the sea, indicated S&M overtones in a torture chamber from Spanish days, even Miss Colbert cleaning the windows of his place so he can actually sea the waterfront doesn't affect him, even with a mandatory happy ending to the script, and that's why I think this movie isn't a pre-code classic.