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Underworld (also released as Paying the Penalty) is a 1927 American silent crime film directed by Josef von Sternberg [1] and starring Clive Brook, Evelyn Brent and George Bancroft. The film launched Sternberg's eight-year collaboration with Paramount Pictures, with whom he would produce his seven films with actress Marlene Dietrich.
Underworld: Directed by Josef von Sternberg, Arthur Rosson. With George Bancroft, Evelyn Brent, Clive Brook, Fred Kohler. Boisterous gangster kingpin Bull Weed rehabilitates his former lawyer from his alcoholic haze, but complications arise when he falls for Weed's girlfriend.
- (3.5K)
- Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
- Josef von Sternberg, Arthur Rosson
- 1927-10-29
Aug 13, 2021 · Josef von Sternberg’s riveting breakthrough is widely considered the film that launched the American gangster genre as we know it. George Bancroft plays heavy Bull Weed, a criminal kingpin whose jealous devotion to his moll, Feathers (Evelyn Brent), gets him into hot water with a rival hood and, ultimately, the authorities.
- 82 min
Oct 28, 2015 · Josef von Sternberg's UNDERWORLD (1927) inspires a cycle of gangster films that stretches beyond the late silent era. A look at the performances of George Bancroft, Evelyn Brent, and Clive Brook, and the relationship between their characters.
Underworld, Sternberg's third feature (not counting uncredited reshoots and re-edits of other films), has been called the first gangster film, but apart from anticipating some of the conventions taken up in films like The Public Enemy, Little Caesar and especially Scarface, this proto-gangster film is far more of an atmospheric character piece ...
Gangster kingpin Bull Weed (George Bancroft) rehabilitates his drunken lawyer, but complications arise when the lawyer falls for Bull's girlfriend.
- (20)
- Crime, Drama