A GIRL IN EVERY PORT (1928)

Of the seven silents Howard Hawks made before synch-sound came in (and what a visual edge that training gave directors - image first!), this modest audience-pleaser was both the best and most characteristically Hawksian.  In hindsight, first in what he called ‘love stories between two men,’* at the time it would have been spotted as copycat WHAT PRICE GLORY/’26 (see poster), one of the top-grossing of all silent pics.  Hawks' twist on the theme is to make the buddy-buddy rivalry over a series of girls before finding the one that counts (Louise Brooks); and to drop WWI and its serious notes from the story.  Victor McLaglen, largely repeating his characterization from GLORY, now a sailor with a girl in every port (natch), but unable to connect because his little black book has gone out of date (old flames now married with kids) or worse, sporting ‘tags’ from Merchant Marine Robert Armstrong who got there before him.  So when these alpha males finally meet, look out!  Only mutual enemies or the police could get them together.  Which, between other waterfront toughs & the local force, is exactly what happens.  Now the two so joined at the hip, Armstrong’s jealousy flares up when McLaglen starts a flirtation.  And when McLaglen thinks of marrying Brooks’ sideshow diver, Armstrong has to come to the rescue and stop the tempting gold-digger by reminding her of their mutual past when he knew her as Tessie back in her Coney Island days.  Heck, she’s even got his ‘tag’ tattooed on her arm.  Great fun, and somehow the sexist behavior isn’t as threatening as it sounds on paper.  And what a fine figure of a man ex-prize fighter McLaglen was in his younger days.  He must be a foot taller than anyone else on screen here.  According to Brooks, he basically directed her while Hawks simply stood in the background looking impossibly handsome and distanced.  Perfect for a director, she thought.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY/DB:  *The main rivalry usually concerned who got to fuck the girl.  So . . . pure platonic love for the guys?  But look at the intimacy of the final shot here, when the boys get back together.  If that last two-shot ain’t Prelude to Kiss, I don’t know what is.  Of Hawks’ two-guy love tales, only Kirk Douglas & Dewey Martin in THE BIG SKY/’52 seems more on the nose.