The Best Old Movies on a Big Screen This Week: NYC Repertory Cinema Picks, September 16-22
Underworld (1927)
Directed by Josef von Sternberg
Sternberg directed eight silent films, four of which are considered lost today. In 1935, seven years after his last silent work’s premiere, MoMA’s Film Library (now the Department of Film) was founded, and curator Iris Barry began creating a collection that would include what she considered to be the best of Hollywood art. Underworld, Sternberg’s first commercial success, was a notable film in that collection: It helped define the framework of the gangster film genre while offering a tremendous—and uniquely Sternbergian—exercise in style. The film follows an urban love triangle between the gigantic and boisterous criminal Bull Weed (George Bancroft), his quick-witted moll Feathers McCoy (Evelyn Brent), and their embittered and alcoholic former lawyer companion, Rolls Royce Wensel (Clive Brook). Bull falls into trouble with the law and reaches out for help to his two companions, whose desires to heed his calls conflict with their newfound feelings for one another. Tension arises over whether this small group will stay together or break apart as people pass through nocturnal streets and rooms enshrouded in shadows. They grapple through darkness surrounding them in an effort to reach shared points of light. Aaron Cutler (September 17, 1:30pm at MoMA’s “Modern Matinees,” with live piano accompaniment by Donald Sosin)