"I Cover the Waterfront" (1933), Combining Newspaper Comedy, Romantic Comedy, and an Expose of Human Trafficking

"I Cover the Waterfront" is the title of a 1933 movie directed by James Cruze (The Covered Wagon, Gangs of New York), the title of song that became a jazz standard*, and the title of the column written by Joe Miller (Ben Lyon {Hell's Angels]) in a Southern California (San Diego in the original book by Max Miller, which was a best-seller in 1932) port city. Miller is on what the Coast Guard and his editor (Purnell Pratt) regard as a vendetta against a salty dog ship captain, Eli Kirk (Ernest Torrence [Tol'able David, The Covered Wagon, and the actor who played Steamboat Bill Senior'"to Buster Keaton's "Steamboat Bill, Jr."). The audience knows that Joe is right, '˜cause in Kirk's first scene he is having a Chinese man whom he is smuggling into the US tied up with a chain and dumped overboard before the Coast Guard (and Kirk) arrive.

Torrence played lots of villains (except to Clara Bow in the title role of "Man Trap"), and did them well. He has a daughter, Julie (Claudette Colbert on the edge of stardom, which came a year later as Cecil B. de Mille's Cleopatra and her Oscar-winning turn in Frank Capra's "It Happened One Night") who is not guileless, but is pure of heart. The viewer first sees her (from a distance) diving nude into the ocean, and in her first scene with dialogue she is still nude, though behind a rock from Joe. She knows that her father gets into trouble when he drinks, but does not know that he is using his boat to smuggle in (and, when pressed, throw over) undocumented aliens.#

The movie juxtaposes a quite grim look at human trafficking (Chinese though Kirk only takes them from Mexico to the unnamed city's Chinatown) with pretty standard newspaper comedy ("The Front Page" is the prototype), and romantic comedy with a lot of badinage. Though I don't find alcoholism funny, I have to admit that "One Punch" McCoy (Hobart Cavanaugh [Captain Blood]) is pretty funny.

Colbert was about to become one of the greatest screwball comedy actresses: The Palm Beach Story, Midnight, Tovarich, The Egg and I following "It Happened One Night." And she had already been directed by Ernst Lubitsch the year before in "The Smiling Lieutenant" (Maurice Chevalier hamming it up in the title role). Though her cheeks alarm me, I enjoy her wryness and unflappability. Colbert could do dismay (here and elsewhere) and was a fine actress, not just a comedienne. Lyon was pretty wooden but tolerable

The movie was pre-code, hence the possibility of conversation between the hero and a naked woman, and also a passing mention of lesbians landing and the implication of the leads shacking up without benefit of clergy.

Along with the romance, the expos© of Kirk's crimes, and the newspaper comedy, there is a shootout, a shooting, the casual drowning of human cargo, and a shark hunt that is lethal for one sailor., although the movie only runs 75 minutes. The visuals are quite dark (proto-noir), with lots of obvious back-projection of the leads. The interest in Colbert on the verge of stardom, in the mildly amusing Hobart Cavanaugh, in the playful s&m (specifically, bondage), and in a representation of smuggling in Chinese while the "Oriental Exclusion Act" was in force make the movie a bit above average.

* Inspired by the book, the music of the song "I Cover the Waterfront" (written by Johnny Green, who also wrote the music for "Body and Soul") was used under the opening credits of the movie.

#On the contemporary continuation of this trafficking, see The Snakehead.