Waterfront

This is one of Michael Anderson's earliest films but already a masterpiece. It is like almost a documentary of very ordinary people living by the docks of Liverpool. The father, Robert Newton, is an irresponsible drunk who goes for the sea for fourteen years without once writing home to his family. His two daughters grow up in the meantime, the eldest taking on the responsibility for the family to make it survive with a father gone without ever sending any money home, but she finds the young Richard Burton, who already here makes a brilliant appearance in one of his first films. The other daughter is more flimsy and gets courted by a cad, Kenneth Grahame, always a pleasure to watch on screen, while the mother, Kathleen Harrison, as good as ever, keeps faithful to her wretched husband in good memory, and the drama begins in half of the film when he suddenly comes home after fourteen years. Nora, the eldest daughter, happens to be alone at home and is shocked to her bones to see him come back in the middle of the great depression, when everyone is out of work and money is more than scarce, and all her reasonable bitterness immediately flares up. He is thrown out, and there the tragedy begins, he not even knowing he has a son who was born after he had left.

It's a very humdrum but gripping drama with the fascinating environment of the Liverpool docks, reminding you of the tense atmosphere In films like "Odd Man Out" and "For Them That Trespass", similar classical down to earth films without any Hollywood lustre. Robert Newton as the pathetic father makes the deepest impression, but all the acting here is first class, giving a perfectly convincing insight into basic life at the old docklands of Liverpool. Adding to the charm is the somewhat striking accompaniment of music by Liszt ("The Preludes" above all.)