Waterfront
(1944)
Starring:
John Carradine - Victor Marlow
J. Carrol Naish - Dr. Carl Decker
Maris Wrixon - Freda Hauser
Waterfront is a little gem of a B-movie and I am very happy
I found it.
Dr. Carl Decker (J. Carrol Naish) is an optometrist, who is
really a Nazis spy-master during World War II. One night a
street thug robs the doctor and steals his little black
code book. The next night Victor Marlow (John Carradine), a
veteran Nazi agent and enforcer shows up and makes contact
with Dr. Decker. Unfortunately, Decker cannot decode the
orders Marlow has brought with him without that code book.
So Marlow, a cold killer, goes out on the hunt for both the
missing code book and the people who wanted it stolen.
This black and white movie is a bit grainy, because I'm
sure nobody thought a wartime B-movie from PRC Pictures
would ever have any great value. But despite that it is
certainly watchable.
What puts this film well above the rest is the presence of
J. Carrol Naish and the great John Carradine in the same
picture. They are superb. The scenes where they are
together make the film, and it certainly is not easy making
a film that centers around the two antagonists instead of
the good guys. Quite an accomplishment. The other thing
that really helps is the directing by Steve Sekely. It is
several cuts above the usual low budget movie treatment and
some of the early scenes have some great noir lighting
effects.
Okay this is not a James Bond film, but it is way above the
quality of the "serials" that most of these films were
like. If you like wartime, spy movies this is a little
known collectors find. Well worth having.