One of my all time favorites.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

A tale of love and immigrant smuggling in San Diego harbor, enlivened by some clever dialog. Example: "When two men agree, one of them is unnecessary." I grant you it's not a flight of poetry.Lyon isn't bad as the newspaper reporter who gets mixed up with the chief smuggler and the smuggler's sexy young daughter, Colbert. It's true that someone like Gable or Spencer Tracy would have been an improvement, but Lyon's lackadaisical approach doesn't ruin the part. His chief job is to court Colbert in order to get evidence that will hang her father, who is particeps criminis, although Colbert believes him to be a simple fisherman.Ernest Torrence is Colbert's father. Chinese workers pay him $700 to hide on his fishing boat and be brought ashore along with the catch du jour. If a Coast Guard cutter approaches, good old Torrance and his two crewmen will reluctantly dump the illegal Oriental passenger overboard, loaded with chains. It is a bit impolite but let's not condemn the old fellow, because he loves his daughter and brings her a pretty gift, given to him by the Oriental gentleman whom he just deep sixed. The boat carries other illegal stash as well, such as whiskey. God, it just occurred to me -- 1933, the depths of the Great Depressions AND prohibition! How bad can a national nightmare get? The weighted body of that illegal immigrant is found by Lyons shortly after it's been dumped. In pursuit of a story, he rolls it up and deposits it on his office desk, while the editor argues with him. The body continues to be treated rudely. It's referred to several times as "the Chink." And when Lyons plops it on his desk, the editor shouts angrily, "What do you want ME to do with it -- have it stuffed?" Torrence looks the part of the old barnacle, his weathered Scots face bewhiskered and corrugated. His acting is as old-fashioned as his appearance but the mug can play the piano in the local bawdy house and the audience is treated to tuneful ditties like "I Cover the Waterfront" and "Mighty Like a Rose." He and his crew overreach when harpooning a monstrous shark and the brutal scene that follows is right out of "Moby Dick" or "Jaws." The few scenes at sea are pretty good.Tipped by Lyon, the Coast Guard catches Torrence smuggling illegals inside the bodies of huge (fake) sharks. The details regarding the Coast Guard's equipment and uniforms of the period haven't been well researched, but no matter.The few scenes at sea are pretty good. The ending is serious and well handled. Direction by James Cruze is exceptional in a strictly functional way and in fact it's an exciting and funny movie.

In his 1976 book CLAUDETTE COLBERT, film historian William Everson writes extensively about I COVER THE WATERFRONT, praising it as one of Colbert's best films and as containing one of her best performances. Everson's book was one in the series edited by Ted Sennett, THE PYRAMID ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE MOVIES.In discussing the movie, Everson references scenes which are not found in the 60 minute print in existence today. (Another reviewer states the original movie is 72 minutes long.) Here is an excerpt from Everson's text which refers to the missing scenes: ". . . there seem to be years of world-weariness compressed into the tone of Colbert's voice in her one line 'Who cares about tomorrow?' as she rolls over into the embrace of Ben Lyon, before an off-screen seduction. In the scene where she visits the bordello to collect her father, there's a wonderful combination of humor, resignation and the implication that this is a frequent procedure, when she good-naturedly says she'll wait for him, as he's still 'busy' upstairs. When she finds he's been 'rolled,' her mood changes to one of fury. Transformed into a fighting demon, she lashes out at his companion, retrieves the money, and then, as the floozie dissolves into tears, has a change of heart and peels off a bill for her. 'Here, I guess you've earned it!', is her exit line as she propels her father homeward." In the existing 60 minute version, I COVER THE WATERFRONT is a valuable piece of film history. How much more valuable it would be to have the missing scenes restored.

Reliance Pictures was an off shoot of Edward Small productions and was also responsible for some really interesting films ("Palooka" (1934), an excellent adaptation of the Joe Palooka comic strip with Jimmy Durante and "Let "em Have It" (1935), a dynamic story about a ruthless gangster played by Bruce Cabot) during it's short life. James Cruze was hired by Reliance to direct it's first film in 1933, "I Cover the Waterfront". Based loosely on the best selling expose by reporter Max Miller, the film combined lurid fact with fiction, sprinkled with chilling drama.When reporter Joe Miller (Ben Lyon) is called out to report on a nude bather (pretty risqué even for 1933!!) he meets Julie Kirk (Claudette Colbert) and realises her father is Eli Kirk, an old fisherman, who he has suspected for a long time is involved in a smuggling racket. He is - people smuggling!!!and he is cold blooded enough to think nothing of throwing a chinaman overboard when the customs officers get too close. The one person he loves unconditionally is his daughter Julie but she has suspected for a while that something is troubling her father. Miller starts to romance Julie - to see what she knows, but of course the inevitable happens and they fall in love.Claudette Colbert and Ben Lyon were the nominal stars but the real reason to watch is Ernest Torrence. He had always been a menacing villain ever since portraying the degenerate Luke Hatfield in "Tol'able David" (1921) but in this movie he really outdoes himself as the fearsome tobacco spitting killer, who will stop at nothing to avoid detection of his smuggling racket. An amazing story, according to "Human Monsters", involves a harpooning expedition, where several twenty foot sharks were caught for the scene in which illegal immigrants were hidden in the shark carcasses. Special breathing masks attached to snorkels enabled the Chinese extras to survive the scenes in which they are bound in chains, inside the sharks. "I Cover the Waterfront" also boasted a popular theme song, which became a jazz standard, covered by many artists, including Billie Holiday.Recommended.

On the San Diego coast, hard-nosed reporter Ben Lyon (H. Joseph "Joe" Miller) suspects nasty seafaring Captain Ernest Torrence (as Eli Kirk) is part of a smuggling racket. Indeed, Mr. Torrence is cleverly shipping illegal Chinese immigrants to California. But, neither Mr. Lyon nor the local Coast Guard can catch him in the act. And, Lyon's editor wants him to cover stories like the report of a nude woman swimming in the ocean. Wearing only a bathing cap, but conveniently posed behind a large rock, the naked woman turns out to be beautiful Claudette Colbert (as Julie). When Lyon learns Ms. Colbert is Torrence's daughter, he decides a quick romance with the attractive Colbert might net him the proof he needs to bag the crook. This story, while flawed in a couple of important ways, is full of clever touches. The opening credits are noticeably well-done, in a "newspaper" style, they explain "I Cover the Waterfront" will be about, "The unique and personal experiences of a newspaper reporter covering a Pacific waterfront." Lyons and Torrence contribute fine, dependable characterizations. Colbert isn't entirely believable as Torrence's salty daughter; but, this could have been fixed with some slight script revisions. For example, Colbert could have been reconnecting with her father, after a long absence. Still, Colbert looks great from any angle.Director James Cruze handles his players marvelously, with the most delightful scene occurring when Lyon takes Colbert on a date to the torture chamber of the "Prison Ship Santa Madre" and engages in her some bondage. "I can take it!" says a satisfied Colbert. Not so successful is the moment when Lyon slits a shark open to reveal an immigrant inside, which defies credulity. Sly innuendo is provided by "One Punch" Hobart Cavanaugh (as McCoy), Lyon's drunken companion. When Lyon pokes him in bed, Mr. Cavanaugh sheepishly catchphrases, "Not tonight, Josephine!" (remember, Lyon's character is named "Joseph"). "Women are all alike," he says later, "When you need them most, they are conspicuous by their absence." Credit writers Max Miller, Wells Root, and Jack Jevne.******* I Cover the Waterfront (5/19/33) James Cruze ~ Ben Lyon, Claudette Colbert, Ernest Torrence, Hobart Cavanaugh