I Cover the Waterfront
Directed by James Cruze
Written by Wells Root and Jack Jevne from a book by Max Miller
1933/US
Edward Small Productions (Distributed by United Artists)
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime (free to members)
Joe Miller: Come on, let’s play a love scene.
Julie Kirk: Let’s fall in love first.
Short, kinda sweet, and enjoyable.
Joe Miller (Ben Lyon) covers the waterfront in San Diego for the newspaper he works for. He mostly hates his job. There is one story he wants to write though. He is convinced that “fisherman” Eli Kirk (Ernest Torrance) is smuggling in Chinese illegal immigrants. His interest is intensified when he finds the body of an immigrant who was tossed in the harbor during a raid.
Then Joe meets Julie Kirk (Claudette Colbert), Eli’s daughter. His first idea is to use her to get next to Eli but he rapidly falls in love with her. This throws a monkey wrench into his journalistic plans, but he persists.
I enjoyed this hour-long movie. Amazing how many newspaper stories there were in the early 30’s! The stars are appealing, the romance is cute, and we get a little crime story to boot.
No clips so here’s a song inspired by the movie
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The next day I rewatched The Story of Temple Drake (1933) which I had already reviewed here. I think I liked it even more on the second viewing.
