Impressive, if overlooked early John Ford sound film survives only as a ‘Part Talkie’ work print, but enjoys fine visual quality in the MoMA conservation print. Loaded with special interest for Ford mavens, but not for specialists only, it mainly deals with a submarine crash and the unfolding drama as the crew waits for rescue from above (they can only get out via torpedo tube!) or slow death as the ship runs out of oxygen. Ford seemed unusually pleased with this one; rightly so (though in discussing it with Peter Bogdanovich*, he conflates it with his follow up sub pic, SEAS BENEATH). Proud of filming inside a real sub, Ford gains just as much verisimilitude thru the relative youth of the 'acting company regulars’ he was already recycling in his casts. But the film’s main draw comes less from the tragic underwater countdown than in its prologue, a set piece with the crew on a quick leave in Shanghai, cramming in as much drinking and whoring as they can in a couple of hours. Mostly at a famous local joint with ‘the Longest Bar in the World.’ It’s all character comedy, sentimental homesickness, barroom ballads, and bartering over sex. Much of it exceedingly raw even by Pre-Code standards. (You could cuss like a real tar in the silents!) Held together with little but Ford’s eye for composition (cinematography by Joseph August) and easy command of pace. Much of his technique a leftover from the silent era with which this all but closes the book. The only plot element in this part a touch of narrative foreshadowing to set up a Mystery Man With A Past on the sub crew, an officer whose secret will wrap things up with a satisfyingly noble sacrifice.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: During the rescue scenes, keep an eye out for John Wayne as a radio operator. He’d soon run afoul of Ford, banished for nearly a decade (until STAGECOACH/’39) after showing disloyalty (by Ford’s book) taking the lead in Raoul Walsh’s THE BIG TRAIL/’30.
READ ALL ABOUT IT: *See Bogdanovich’s early interview book: JOHN FORD: UoCal Press/1968.
DOUBLE-BILL: As mentioned above, SEAS BENEATH/’31.
No comments:
Post a Comment