''Underworld'' (also released as ''Paying the Penalty'') is a 1927 American silent crime film directed by Josef von Sternberg and starring

Clive Brook Clifford Hardman "Clive" Brook (1 June 1887 – 17 November 1974) was an English film actor. After making his first screen appearance in 1920, Brook emerged as a leading British actor in the early 1920s. After moving to the United States ...

Evelyn Brent Evelyn Brent (born Mary Elizabeth Riggs; October 20, 1895 – June 4, 1975) was an American film and stage actress. Early life Brent was born in Tampa, Florida, and known as Betty. When she was age 10, her mother Eleanor (née. Warner) died, ...

and

George Bancroft George Bancroft (October 3, 1800 – January 17, 1891) was an American historian, statesman and Democratic politician who was prominent in promoting secondary education both in his home state of Massachusetts and at the national and internati ...

. The film launched Sternberg's eight-year collaboration with Paramount Pictures, with whom he would produce his seven films with actress

Marlene Dietrich Marie Magdalene "Marlene" DietrichBorn as Maria Magdalena, not Marie Magdalene, according to Dietrich's biography by her daughter, Maria Riva ; however Dietrich's biography by Charlotte Chandler cites "Marie Magdalene" as her birth name . (, ; ...

. Journalist and screenwriter Ben Hecht won an Academy Award for Best Original Story.

Plot

Boisterous gangster kingpin 'Bull' Weed rehabilitates the down-and-out 'Rolls Royce' Wensel, a former lawyer who has fallen into alcoholism. The two become confidants, with Rolls Royce's intelligence aiding Weed's schemes, but complications arise when Rolls Royce falls for Weed's girlfriend 'Feathers' McCoy. Adding to Weed's troubles are attempts by a rival gangster, 'Buck' Mulligan, to muscle in on his territory. Their antagonism climaxes with Weed killing Mulligan and he is imprisoned. Awaiting a death sentence, Rolls Royce devises an escape plan, but he and Feathers face a dilemma, wondering if they should elope together and leave Bull Weed to his fate.

Cast

as "Rolls Royce" Wensel *

as "Feathers" McCoy *

as "Bull" Weed *

Fred Kohler Fred Kohler (April 20, 1888 – October 28, 1938) was an American actor. Career Fred Kohler was born in Kansas City, Missouri or in Dubuque, Iowa. As a teen, he began to pursue a career in vaudeville, but worked other jobs to support himself. ...

as "Buck" Mulligan *

Helen Lynch Helen Lynch (April 6, 1900 – March 2, 1965) was an American silent film actress, mainly known for her roles playing gun molls and other morally dubious characters. Biography Lynch was born in 1900 in Billings, Montana, where she was also ra ...

as Meg, Mulligan's girl *

Larry Semon Lawrence Semon (February 9, 1889 – October 8, 1928) was an American actor, director, producer, and screenwriter during the silent film era. In his day, Semon was considered a major movie comedian, but he is now remembered mainly for working ...

as "Slippy" Lewis *

Jerry Mandy Jerry Mandy (June 5, 1892 – May 1, 1945) was an American film actor. He appeared in 114 films between 1923 and 1945. He was born in Utica, New York and died in Hollywood, California from a heart attack. Selected filmography * ''North Sta ...

as Paloma * Alfred Allen as Judge (uncredited) *

Shep Houghton George Shephard Houghton (June 4, 1914 – December 15, 2016) was an American actor and dancer, who appeared mainly in small uncredited roles in films from 1927 until 1976, but also guested on numerous TV series. He had small roles in ''Gone wit ...

as Street Kid (uncredited) * Andy MacLennan as One of Laughing Faces at the Ball (uncredited) * Ida May as Laughing Woman at the Ball (uncredited) * Karl Morse as 'High Collar' Sam (uncredited) *

Julian Rivero Julian Rivero (July 25, 1890 – February 24, 1976) was an American actor whose career spanned seven decades. He made his film debut in the 1923 silent melodrama, '' The Bright Shawl'', which starred Richard Barthelmess, Dorothy Gish, William Pow ...

as One of Buck's Henchmen (uncredited)

Background

Josef von Sternberg's brief tenure as director at

M-G-M Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 ...

was terminated by mutual consent in 1925 shortly after he walked off the set of a

Mae Murray Mae Murray (born Marie Adrienne Koenig; May 10, 1885 – March 23, 1965) was an American actress, dancer, film producer, and screenwriter. Murray rose to fame during the silent film era and was known as "The Girl with the Bee-Stung Lips" and "Th ...

vehicle '' The Masked Bride''. The film was completed by director Christy Cabanne Sternberg's next project was an assignment by Charlie Chaplin (United Artists) to write and direct '' A Woman of the Sea'' starring

Edna Purviance Olga Edna Purviance (; October 21, 1895 – January 13, 1958) was an American actress of the silent film era. She was the leading lady in many of Charlie Chaplin's early films and in a span of eight years, she appeared in over 30 films with hi ...

. This episode also ended badly: the film was never released and Chaplin felt compelled to destroy all film negatives. As Sternberg sardonically quipped in his 1965 memoir ''Fun in a Chinese Laundry'', "It was dna Purviances last film and nearly my own." Sternberg accepted a contract offer from Paramount Pictures in 1926, with the humbling condition that he was demoted to the role of assistant director. He was quickly assigned to reshoot portions of director

Frank Lloyd Frank William George Lloyd (2 February 1886 – 10 August 1960) was a British-born American film director, actor, scriptwriter, and producer. He was among the founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and was its preside ...

's '' Children of Divorce''. His work was so outstanding that the studio awarded him with a project of his own. The result was his most famous film to date of his career -''Underworld''. The film would "establish Sternberg in the Hollywood system."

Production

''Underworld'' is based on a story by Ben Hecht, a former Chicago crime reporter, and adapted for screenplay by Robert N. Lee with titles by George Marion Jr. It was produced by

B. P. Schulberg B. P. Schulberg (born Percival Schulberg, January 19, 1892 – February 25, 1957) was an American pioneer film producer and film studio executive. Biography Born Percival Schulberg in Bridgeport, Connecticut, he took the name Benjamin from the ...

and Hector Turnbull with cinematography by

Bert Glennon Bert Lawrence Glennon (November 19, 1893 – June 29, 1967) was an American cinematographer and film director. He directed ''Syncopation'' (1929), the first film released by RKO Radio Pictures. Biography Glennon was born in Anaconda, Mont ...

and edited by E. Lloyd Sheldon. Sternberg completed ''Underworld'' in a record-setting five weeks. The gangster role played by George Bancroft was modeled on "Terrible" Tommy O'Connor, an Irish-American mobster who gunned down Chicago Police Chief Padraig O'Neil in 1923 but escaped three days before execution and was never apprehended. Paramount Pictures, initially cool towards the production, predicted the film would fail. Initial release was limited to only one theater, the New York Paramount. The studio did not provide advance publicity. Writer Ben Hecht requested (unsuccessfully) to have his name taken off the credits, due to the dismal prospects for the film.

Reception

Contrary to studio expectations, the public response to the New York screening was so positive that Paramount arranged for round-the-clock showings at the Paramount Theatre to "accommodate the unexpected crowds that flocked to the attraction." ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...

'' felt the film was realistic in some parts, but disliked the Hollywood cliché of turning an evil character's heart to gold at the end. ''Underworld'' was well-received overseas, especially in France, where directors Julien Duvivier and Marcel Carné were deeply impressed with Sternberg's "clinical and spartan" film technique. Filmmaker and surrealist

Luis Buñuel Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish-Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the greatest and ...

named ''Underworld'' as his all time favorite film. Paramount, overjoyed at the film's "critical and commercial success" bestowed a gold medal and a $10,000 bonus on Sternberg. Ben Hecht won the

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

for Writing in the

1st Academy Awards The 1st Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and hosted by AMPAS president Douglas Fairbanks, honored the best films from 1 August 1927 to 31 July 1928 and took place on May 1 ...

ceremony in 1929 for his work on this film. In 2008, the American Film Institute nominated this film for its Top 10 Gangster Films list.

Theme

Sternberg has been credited with "launching the gangster film genre." Critic

Andrew Sarris Andrew Sarris (October 31, 1928 – June 20, 2012) was an American film critic. He was a leading proponent of the auteur theory of film criticism. Early life Sarris was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Greek immigrant parents, Themis (née Katav ...

cautions that ''Underworld'' is "less a proto-gangster film than a pre-gangster film" in which the criminal world of the

Prohibition Era Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic be ...

provides a backdrop for a tragic tale of a "

Byronic hero The Byronic hero is a variant of the Romantic hero as a type of character, named after the English Romantic poet Lord Byron. Both Byron's own persona as well as characters from his writings are considered to provide defining features to the char ...

" destroyed, not by "the avenging forces of law and order" but by the eternal vicissitudes of "love, faith and falsehood." Journalist Ben Hecht's influence appears in the phony flower shop operation and killing of "Bull" Weed's archenemy, "florist" Buck Mulligan, evoking the 1922 real-life murder of kingpin Dion O'Bannon by the Tony Torrios mob. Funeral hearses also abound in the film, notorious as capacious conveyances used to conceal criminal activities and personnel in Chicago. Despite these contemporary references, ''Underworld'' does not qualify as "the first gangster film" as Sternberg "showed little interest in the purely gangsterish aspects of the genre" nor the "mechanics of obpower." Rather than invoking contemporary social forces and inequities, Sternberg's "Bull" Weed is subject to "implacable Fate", much as the heroes of classical antiquity. The female companions to the outlaws are less gangster molls, addicted to violent men, but protagonists in their own right, who induce "revenge and redemption." The genre would only be properly established in such film classics as '' Little Caesar'' (1930), ''

The Public Enemy ''The Public Enemy'' (''Enemies of the Public'' in the UK) is a 1931 American all-talking pre-Code gangster film produced and distributed by Warner Bros. The film was directed by William A. Wellman and stars James Cagney, Jean Harlow, Edwar ...

'' (1931), '' Scarface'' (1932), '' High Sierra'' (1941), ''

White Heat ''White Heat'' is a 1949 American film noir directed by Raoul Walsh and starring James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien, Margaret Wycherly and Steve Cochran. Written by Ivan Goff and Ben Roberts (writer), Ben Roberts, ''White Heat'' is base ...

'' (1949), ''

The Asphalt Jungle ''The Asphalt Jungle'' is a 1950 American film noir heist film directed by John Huston. Based on the 1949 novel of the same name by W. R. Burnett, it tells the story of a jewel robbery in a Midwestern city. The film stars Sterling Hayden and L ...

'' (1950) and '' The Killing'' (1956). Film critic Dave Kehr, writing for the Chicago Reader in 2014, rates ''Underworld'' as one of the great gangster films of the silent era. "The film established the fundamental elements of the gangster movie: a hoodlum hero; ominous, night-shrouded city streets; floozies; and a blazing finale in which the cops cut down the protagonist." Siegel, Scott, & Siegel, Barbara (2004). ''The Encyclopedia of Hollywood''. 2nd edition. Checkmark Books. p. 178. Weinberg, 1967. p. 34: "... the angstergenre ... so eloquently established."

References

Sources

* Axmaker, Sean. 2010. ''Silents Please: Shadows, Silence and Sternberg''. Parallax View. Retrieved May 10, 2018. http://parallax-view.org/2010/08/26/shadows-and-silence-and-josef-von-sternberg-john-cassavetes-and-citizen-mccain-dvds-of-the-week/ * Barson, Michael. 2005. ''Josef von Sternberg: Austrian-American director''. ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA Online. Retrieved May 10, 2018. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Josef-von-Sternberg * Film Sufi. 2013. ''"Underworld": Josef von Sternberg (1927).'' The Film Sufi. February 12, 2013. Retrieved May 10, 2018. http://www.filmsufi.com/2013/02/underworld-josef-von-sternberg-1927.html * Rodriguez-Ortega, Vicente. 2005. ''Underworld''. Senses of Cinema. Retrieved May 10, 2018. http://sensesofcinema.com/2005/cteq/underworld/ * Sarris, Andrew. 1966. ''The Films of Josef von Sternberg''. Museum of Modern Art/Doubleday. New York, New York. * Weinberg, Herman G., 1967. ''Josef von Sternberg. A Critical Study''. New York: Dutton.

External links

* ''Underworld'': How it came to be. Documentary - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plj7vghnVd4 Retrieved May 12, 2018. * * * *
''Underworld: Dreamland''
an essay by Geoffrey O’Brien at the Criterion Collection {{Authority control 1927 films American silent feature films American black-and-white films American crime drama films Films set in Chicago Films shot in Chicago Films about organized crime in the United States Films directed by Josef von Sternberg American gangster films Films that won the Academy Award for Best Story Films produced by B. P. Schulberg 1927 crime drama films Paramount Pictures films 1920s American films Silent American drama films