Review for Waterfront

‘Waterfront’ is a highly stylised, dark melodrama, pre-dating the British ‘kitchen-sink’ working-class dramas by half a decade, yet using much the same approach and themes. It’s certainly a very worthwhile curio, featuring as it does a compelling performance from the manic, Keith Moon-like Robert Newton as well as a very early turn for a youthful Richard Burton, here in his third feature and the first in a relatively leading role.

Newton plays to type as Peter McCabe, an irresponsible, selfish drinking merchant seaman who we see cruelly leave his wife and children to fend for themselves as he boards a ship with no intention of returning. So as he departs, we start the story of his abandoned family, struggling to make ends meet and yet, despite their abject poverty, pulling together and eventually even achieving a scholarship opportunity for the youngest son who never met his father who little knew that his wife was expecting a third child as he left.

The two older sisters are both still also living in the flat with their mother although the oldest is waiting to marry a handsome young Ship’s Engineer who, just after proposing, falls foul of the pre-war depression and joins the ranks of the mass unemployed in Liverpool. The younger sister, on the other hand, has fallen in with a flashy upper-class privileged young man with a car, money and enough arrogance for an army (played brilliantly by Kenneth Griffith, more typically playing the token Welshman).

When McCabe returns fourteen years later, he is down on his luck, and filled with rage and resentment about a young engineer taking his rightful position on a ship, he ends up stabbing him to death. Ironically, by killing an engineer a place becomes available for his oldest daughter’s fiancé who can now marry – all part of life’s rich and winding tapestry.

When his wife visits him in prison she brings the son to McCabe and for the first time we see a more human side as he is filled with pride as the son recites some Latin for him. With that, he feels that he can go to his grave in peace.

Newton's over-the-top performance works well In the context and support performances from Susan Shaw (as the oldest daughter) and Kathleen Harrison as his wife are top-notch. Burton delivers a strangely haunted and under-stated performance, somehow reflecting the utter gloom of his situation. It’s all terribly melodramatic and not particularly pleasant viewing yet somehow rattles along, thanks to some of the stronger performances.
The Blu-Ray transfer is as good as you could expect for such a marginal film and, whilst not perfect, is still a pleasure to watch. The contrast levels are great with some really solid deep blacks in what feels like very high definition.

An image gallery is the disc’s only extra feature although, if I had a Blu-Ray disc player on my PC, I believe you can access some press materials in PDF form.

A good film, although perhaps not a great one, but its release will give much pleasure to fans of Robert Newton and Richard Burton. Well worth a look.