Review: Edge of the City

Insecure war deserter John Cassavetes (in a role somewhat similar to the type Montgomery Clift or Marlon Brando tended to play at the time) gets a job on the NYC docks, and befriends an affable, easy-going African-American co-worker (Sidney Poitier), which pits him against racist waterfront bully Jack Warden whom none of the other dock workers dare stand up to for fear of violent retribution and/or the loss of their job. Ruby Dee plays Poitier’s loving wife, and Kathleen Maguire is Cassavetes’ pretty love interest, who is also Dee’s best friend.

A tough, realistic waterfront drama from 1957 directed by Martin Ritt (“Hud”, “Paris Blues”, “Conrack”) which has been completely overshadowed by the very similar “On the Waterfront”. This one is grittier and less showy, with brilliant performances from everyone, including one of Warden’s best (alongside his turns in “12 Angry Men” and “The Verdict”), in what is perhaps most aptly described as the Lee J. Cobb role. Warden was one of the most reliable and underrated character actors for a very long period of time. Cassavetes, meanwhile, manages to bring a realism to the role that is far more natural than anything that the irritatingly mannered Brando could come up with, despite my associating him with more tough-guy kinds of roles. Personally, I would’ve preferred Monty Clift in the role, but that’s largely because he’s one of my all-time favourite actors. At the centre of the film is a then-unique, very believable friendship between Cassavetes and Poitier (amazingly assured in one of his earliest roles). Whilst I also love “The Defiant Ones”, the interracial bonding here is far more natural and not really dependent upon circumstance. These two guys just plain get along. Obviously no big deal today, but probably not a particularly common occurrence in American cinema before this. In addition to being a then-rare interracial friendship, it’s obvious that Poitier is a stand-in for Cassavetes’ brother, and serves to teach him to be a man, standing up for himself as Cassavetes is a deeply insecure and guilt-ridden man currently estranged from his family. Some African-American film scholars pick on Poitier for being a ‘palatable’ version of the African-American male, easy for whites of the time to digest, but I think that’s a cynical and wrongful view. For his time, Poitier was a very important figure for African-American representation, and to suggest that he was an ‘Uncle Tom’ or ‘non-threatening’ is to totally disregard his talents as an actor and charisma as a star, let alone the quality and liberal-thinking of his roles for the time in which these films were made. What more could Poitier have done at the time?

An unheralded classic, and a little less showily ‘method’ and taut in its approach than the more famous “On the Waterfront”. An important but forgotten film, there’s all sorts of fascinating thematic stuff going on here, both on the surface and beneath it, and not just limited to racial issues. Corruption and workers’ rights, are also important to the film, for instance. Certainly the scenes involving Cassavetes and Poitier, not to mention the two women are indicative of a change in attitudes just creeping into cinema about race relations and harmonious integration working nicely against Warden’s bullying racism and spite. Speaking of the women, Ruby Dee gets one superlative scene with Cassavetes near the end that allows her to display her underrated acting talent.

The dock scenes have a gritty, harshly uncompromising reality to them that must’ve been pretty confronting for audiences at the time, and still play very well today. Certainly I’ve heard that the film paints a pretty accurate view of such a life. The adapted screenplay is by Robert Alan Aurthur (the B western “Warlock” which featured another interesting male relationship), from his own teleplay “A Man is Ten Feet Tall”.

Rating: A-