Bert Glennon's Girl of the Port (1930)

Readers of this blog know the esteem I have for Turner Classic Movies, where I recently saw Girl of the Port, a lively film of the early sound era.  It is directed by Bert Glennon, who directed eleven films in the early days of sound and then became one of the great cinematographers, working with John Ford, Billy Wilder, Raoul Walsh and other top directors.  At 69 minutes and with a limited amount of sets Girl of the Port is a lively film about the chorus girl Josie (Sally O'Neil) who flees to the Fiji Islands to work in a bar.  She is lusted after by McEwen (played by Mitchell Lewis), who promotes white supremacy but is actually a "half-caste" himself.  Josie fights off McEwen with the help of dipsomaniac Jimmy (Reginald Sharland), a victim of flame-throwers in WWI whom Josie nurses back to health.  The dialogue (by Beulah Marie Dix) is snappy -- "you can't confuse love with gratitude, they're like champagne and Ovaltine" -- and director Glennon maintains a tense and somewhat claustrophobic visual style with the help of cinematographer Leo Tover, who would later work with some of the same directors as Glennon did.