With that wonderful face of a basset hound and a heart just as huge, Marie Dressler touched depression era audiences by making them laugh and cry simultaneously, whether in rags or in high society gowns. Here, it is the former, as she plays a North Pacific waterfront dame, the kind you'd expect to find holding court in a saloon like her Carlotta Vance of "Dinner at Eight" would in Broadway circles. She's the unofficial foster mother of Dorothy Jordan whose real mother left her behind with Dressler years before. Now of the age to attract men, Jordan is the cause of woe for Dressler who desperately wants to keep her out of trouble. Sending her off to boarding school with the money she's saved up for her own old age, Dressler then deals with Jordan's suddenly arrived mother and her own man, the dump but loyal Wallace Beery. In the process, Dressler gets a fast ride on a speed boat, gets picked up after falling overboard by a giant ship's anchor, beats up the philandering Beery, and goes out of her way to protect her beloved Jordan, all under the facade of a cold, uncaring heart, which is all along obviously a pretense.
Dressler's big eyes, expressing so much of what was underneath, tells thousands of stories, and this grand old scene-stealer was definitely worthy of her Oscar for this film. With his "Awe, shucks" attitude, Beery is a worthy partner, although in this case, he wisely allows his co-star Dressler to overshadow him just enough to deliver himself a delightfully subtle performance. Marjorie Rambeau's performance as the boozy mother is no match for Dressler's Mother Courage, yet her performance is one that is never one dimensional or stereotypical. It is loaded with disappointment, a living corpse filled with regret, self-hatred and derivation. Jordan takes what could be a namby-pamby heroine, and instills it with many dimensions, making her memorable as well, especially among the pro's she's cast opposite.
This is an early pre-code gem, filled with MGM gloss inside the waterfront seediness of the Pacific North Coast, and a perfect companion to the same year's "Anna Christie", in which Dressler perfected another memorable waterfront queen.
Dressler's big eyes, expressing so much of what was underneath, tells thousands of stories, and this grand old scene-stealer was definitely worthy of her Oscar for this film. With his "Awe, shucks" attitude, Beery is a worthy partner, although in this case, he wisely allows his co-star Dressler to overshadow him just enough to deliver himself a delightfully subtle performance. Marjorie Rambeau's performance as the boozy mother is no match for Dressler's Mother Courage, yet her performance is one that is never one dimensional or stereotypical. It is loaded with disappointment, a living corpse filled with regret, self-hatred and derivation. Jordan takes what could be a namby-pamby heroine, and instills it with many dimensions, making her memorable as well, especially among the pro's she's cast opposite.
This is an early pre-code gem, filled with MGM gloss inside the waterfront seediness of the Pacific North Coast, and a perfect companion to the same year's "Anna Christie", in which Dressler perfected another memorable waterfront queen.