Waterfront [Waterfront Women] ** (1950, Robert Newton, Kathleen Harrison, Susan Shaw) – Classic Movie Review 13,111

Michael Anderson’s 1950 film Waterfront [Waterfront Women] is set in Liverpool during the Depression of the 1930s, and stars Robert Newton, Kathleen Harrison, and Susan Shaw.

Director Michael Anderson’s depressing 1950 British black and white drama film Waterfront [Waterfront Women] is set in Liverpool during the Depression of the 1930s, and stars Robert Newton, Kathleen Harrison, and Susan Shaw. The screenplay is written by John Brophy and the film’s producer Paul Soskin, based on Brophy’s 1934 novel.

An attention-grabbing Robert Newton plays to the manner born an alcoholic and bitter renegade sailor, ship’s fireman Peter McCabe, who comes back to his long-suffering, impoverished wife (Kathleen Harrison) and three kids after a gap of 14 years, but starts up the same old cycle of drink and violence.

A depressing, tear-soaked, almost Victorian-style, road-to-ruin melodrama, set on the Liverpool waterfront, boasts Newton as by far its main recommendation, though Kathleen Harrison (in a serious role), Avis Scott (as the elder daughter Nora McCabe) and Susan Shaw (as Connie McCabe) are all welcome presences and give good performances, despite having to cope with some fairly daft and unconvincing dialogue. However the rest of the strong cast –including a pre-stardom Richard Burton (aged 25, in only his third film), Kenneth Griffith, James Hayter and Hattie Jacques – is mostly squandered on underwritten roles. Co-writer John Brophy adapts his own well-meaning novel. It goes for realism but it feels unrealistic. We are in the realms of melodrama rather than drama.

The star’s type-casting is also depressing when you know that Newton was battling the bottle in real life at this time.

In the US it was retitled to Waterfront Women, perhaps to avoid confusion with the 1944 John Carradine film Waterfront.

Release date: 26 July 1950 (London) (UK).

Avis Scott (22 February 1918 – 31 May 2010) “too sexy” for British television.

Avis Scott (22 February 1918 – 31 May 2010) became a BBC continuity announcer during the early 1950s but was fired for being ‘too sexy’ for British TV.

The cast are Robert Newton as Peter McCabe, Kathleen Harrison as Mrs McCabe, Avis Scott as Nora McCabe, Susan Shaw as Connie McCabe, Robin Netscher as George Alexander McCabe, Richard Burton as Ben Satterthwaite, Kenneth Griffith as Maurice Bruno, Olive Sloane as Mrs Gibson, James Hayter as Ship’s captain, Charles Victor as refreshments seller Bill, Michael Brennan as engineer, Allan Jeayes as prison officer, Hattie Jacques as music hall singer, and Duncan Lamont.

Waterfront [Waterfront Women] is directed by Michael Anderson, runs 80 minutes, is made by Conqueror Films [Paul Soskin Productions], is released by General Film Distributors (UK), is written by John Brophy and Paul Soskin, is shot by Harry Waxman, is produced by Paul Soskin, and scored by Muir Mathieson.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,111

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