"A Ship Comes In" is a flag-waver about the struggles of immigrants in the early part of the last century. Some immigrants took immediately to their new surroundings, and some did not. This is the story of one Jewish family that loved America as soon as they disembarked at Ellis Island. Rudolph Schildkraut plays Peter, the head of the family who longs to become a naturalized citizen but gets framed by a disgruntled immigrant, Sokol, played by Fritz Feld.
Most of us, having been born here, will never experience Peter's feelings of hope and pride but nowadays we are well aware of his counterpart in the picture, who despises his newly adopted country. "A Ship Comes In" is the second picture I have seen in which Schildkraut, with a deftly nuanced performance, takes over a picture and makes it his own. He is as skilled an actor here as in "His People", made a year earlier. He made only one talking picture, "Christina" (1930)before his death. It is thought to be lost.
"A Ship Comes In" is an intensely human drama shot through with patriotism and embodied in another remarkable acting job by Schildkraut. It was shown at Capitolfest 2011, Rome N.Y.
