Themes: Romantic Betrayal, Work Ethics, Members of the Press
Main Cast: Claudette Colbert, Ben Lyon, Ernest Torrence, Hobart Cavanaugh, Maurice Black
Release Year: 1933
Country: US
Run Time: 70 minutes
Plot
Max Miller's best-seller forms the basis of this romantic melodrama about cynical, hard-drinking reporter Joe Miller (Ben Lyon), who exploits his romance with Julie Kirk (Claudette Colbert) to hand in a sensational story to his newspaper. Julie's father Eli (Ernest Torrence) is a decrepit sea-captain who smuggles in illegal Chinese on the West Coast. For years, Joe has been promising his newspaper editor a major scoop on Chinese smuggling operations, and he finally delivers when Joe catches Eli red-handed. But his torrid affair with Julie confuses matters. Originally Joe's plan was to get to Eli through Julie, but now he is in love with her, and he is not sure what to do. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
Review
An old-fashioned, thoroughly hissable performance by that grand old trouper Ernest Torrence -- his last, incidentally -- buoys this equally old-fashioned melodrama, which, for the prurient, also includes a near-nude swim by Claudette Colbert. James Cruze had directed such silent-era classics as The Covered Wagon, but his talkie career proved disappointing, the relative success of I Cover the Waterfront notwithstanding. And even here Cruze seems reluctant to let Ray June's camera move much and the picture seems more dated than most 1933 productions. Filmed at the harbor in San Pedro, CA, and in Monterey, I Cover the Waterfront was the first release of independent company Reliance Pictures. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
It tells the story of a reporter who investigates a dockland smuggling operation. In the process he becomes romantically involved with daughter of the man he is investigating. The film was based on a book by the same name, written by Max Miller (1899-1967), a beat reporter in San Diego who covered stories on the city's waterfront.
The song "I Cover the Waterfront" appears in the film as an instrumental only. The song, with music by Johnny Green and lyrics by Edward Heyman, has become a jazz standard.
