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Underworld (Criterion Collection)

Underworld (Criterion Collection)

Paramount Pictures (1927)
Crime | Drama | Film Noir | Romance
USA | English | Black & White | 01:20
Blu-ray
1 disc

Boisterous gangster kingpin Bull Weed rehabilitates his former lawyer from his alcoholic haze, but complications arise when he falls for Weed's girlfriend.


Cast View all

George Bancroft 'Bull' Weed
Evelyn Brent 'Feathers' McCoy
Clive Brook Rolls Royce Wensel
Fred Kohler 'Buck' Mulligan
Helen Lynch Meg / Mulligan's Girl
Larry Semon 'Slippy' Lewis
Jerry Mandy Paloma
Alfred Allen Judge
Shep Houghton Street Kid
Andy MacLennan One of Laughing Faces at the Ball
Ida May Laughing Woman at the Ball
Karl Morse 'High Collar' Sam
Bob Reeves Detective at Railroad Station
Julian Rivero One of Buck's Henchmen

Personal

Quantity 1
Seen
Added Date Dec 26, 2019 14:03:02
Modified Date Jun 12, 2022 00:35:04

Notes

Christmas 2019 gift from Beth
Part of 3-film boxset.

THREE-DISC SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
High-definition digital restorations of all three films
Six scores: by Robert Israel for all three films, Alloy Orchestra for Underworld and The Last Command, and Donald Sosin and Joanna Seaton for The Docks of New York
Two video essays from 2010, one by UCLA film professor Janet Bergstrom and the other by film scholar Tag Gallagher
Swedish television interview from 1968 with director Josef von Sternberg
PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by critic Geoffrey O’Brien, scholar Anton Kaes, and author and critic Luc Sante; notes on the scores by the composers; Ben Hecht’s original treatment for Underworld; and an excerpt from von Sternberg’s 1965 auto­biography, Fun in a Chinese Laundry, on actor Emil Jannings
Covers by F. Ron Miller

Josef von Sternberg’s riveting breakthrough is widely considered the film that launched the American gangster genre as we know it. George Bancroft plays heavy Bull Weed, a criminal kingpin whose jealous devotion to his moll, Feathers (Evelyn Brent), gets him into hot water with a rival hood and, ultimately, the authorities. Further complicating matters is the attraction that blossoms between Feathers and an alcoholic former lawyer (Clive Brook). With its supple, endlessly expressive camera work and tightly wound screenplay based on a story by legendary scribe Ben Hecht (who won an Oscar for it the first year the awards were given), Underworld solidified von Sternberg’s place as one of Hollywood’s most exciting new talents.

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