Port of Shadows (1938)

Had I paid closer attention to both film similarities and Netflix waits, I would not have arranged to watch this right after Waterloo Bridge. It was made around the same time and involves a romantic drama with a soldier. Fortunately, that's about where the similarity ends. It's a stretch to lump one of the first designated films noir in the same group.

Jean deserts his army post and hitchhikes to the port city of Le Havre, which turns out to have a thriving criminal element. He gets caught up in the troubles of 17-year-old Nelly, who has been avoiding her sketchy, persistent godfather, Zabel. If that's not trouble enough, a mob led by one Lucien hopes she'll give them her absent ex-boyfriend, among other things. Jean uses some of his soldier skills to protect her. Of course, he can't very well let the authorities know about him....

I wouldn't have expected a lady that young to draw the interest of just about every man who sets eyes on her. Maybe I'm just bringing my modern American bias into this. I must warn you that some of the behavior toward her is evocative of rape, and not just in the statutory sense.

On the more endearing side, a medium-sized mutt follows Jean around despite his disinterest. Eventually he accepts that it won't leave him, but he never names it (and as you can see, I don't recall its gender). It must exist primarily for reasons of symbolism, because it does nothing vital to the plot; the closest it comes is in barking at Zabel.

I had to look at a synopsis for some details that I missed upon viewing. Either the film is deeper than I was prepared for -- pretty likely, given its basis in a novel -- or it didn't sustain my interest and I tuned out obvious indicators. In particular, it took me a while to understand the hostility toward Zabel, who admits to looking uncomely but seemed harmless enough to me until the third act.>

I also kinda needed the synopsis in order to characterize the overall plot. A long time can pass without a sense of much happening in an overarching way. Perhaps it makes sense for early noir to be a little lacking in forward momentum. That's not a big problem in an otherwise excellent piece like Breathless, but PoS doesn't quite reach that height.

Others have labeled the film "poetic realism." The clearest indicator of this is the use of a fake set rather than the real city. Some viewers find this off-putting; I didn't give it any thought at the time. I'm more concerned about some stilted delivery.

As I see it, the movie works best on the occasions that it aims for crime-driven thrills. Focuses on the somewhat icky and clearly doomed relationship between Jean and Nelly just drive it down. You have to like the genre better than I do nowadays for me to recommend PoS to you.