Underworld

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Underworld

1927,

1h 20m,

Crime/

Drama

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Watchlist

90%

20 Reviews

Tomatometer

88%

2,500+ Ratings

Popcornmeter

90%

Tomatometer

20 Reviews

88%

Popcornmeter

2,500+ Ratings

Gangster kingpin Bull Weed rehabilitates his drunken lawyer, but complications arise when the lawyer falls for Bull's girlfriend.

Richard Brody

The New Yorker

Sep 14, 2015

Sternberg's richly ornamental compositions-which are dense with shadows and objects that separate viewers from the action-suggest a willful distance from his characters.

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Variety Staff

Variety

Mar 26, 2009

There's a wallop right through and yet the film retains romance, clicks not a little on comedy and even whitewashes itself with a 'moral.'

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Fernando F. Croce

Slant Magazine

Sep 18, 2007

3.5/4

Josef von Sternberg's Underworld is a fascinating early cornerstone of both the director's worldview and the gangster genre.

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Justine Smith

Vague Visages

Jun 6, 2024

Few filmmakers in the history of cinema have invoked the inherent eroticism of the image like Sternberg...

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Roy Chartier

Billboard

Mar 16, 2023

Many things combine to make Underworld an absorbing, spellbinding picture. The acting, direction, titles, photography, camera angles, story and action are a few of them.

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Carl Sandburg

Chicago Daily News

Dec 14, 2021

Underworld does for the sophisticated adult what football does for the college boy. And Bancroft achieves something of the herculean glory of a gory fullback, with Von Sternberg as his general, showing him the openings, guiding his raging course.

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Hermione S

Jan 21, 2019

An underappreciated, late great of the silent era. Precedent setting for numerous crime films to come, some masterful moments of cinematography, with a great story and well formed characters.

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Finn S

Apr 6, 2017

An electrifying gangster picture focusing on a rivalry between to major gangsters in Chicago Bull Weed & Meaghan. Bull Weed's right hand man is a smart guy & beginning to fall in love with Weed's girl. Shot immaculately by Josef Von Sternberg this film has such a distinct visual flair with the aid of mood lighting and smoke. Moves fast & packs a punch this film is quite entertaining. Clive Brook (Rolls Royce [Weed's 2IC]) really pushes the story along. An interesting Silent Gangster Film.

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George M

Dec 22, 2011

The good point of being the first movie of anything (in this case, gangsters) is, precisely, that you are the first. The bad point is that everybody copies you and, when you watch it after watching them all, it sounds not new. Anyway, it has reasons to be clapped.

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Josef von Sternberg

Director

George Bancroft

'Bull' Weed

Evelyn Brent

'Feathers' McCoy

Clive Brook

Rolls Royce Wensel

Fred Kohler Sr.

'Buck' Mulligan

Helen Lynch

Meg

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Synopsis

Gangster kingpin Bull Weed rehabilitates his drunken lawyer, but complications arise when the lawyer falls for Bull's girlfriend.

Director: Josef von Sternberg
Screenwriter: Charles Furthman, Robert N. Lee
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Production Co: Paramount Pictures, Famous Players-Lasky Corporation
Genre: Crime, Drama
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 20, 1927, Original
Release Date (DVD): Apr 1, 2014
Runtime: 1h 20m

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