Editing The Docks of New York (section)

== Reception ==
''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' called the film “a corking program picture” and says the film misses greatness by a “whisker”. They also praised the performance of Bancroft, the direction of von Sternberg, the cinematography of Harold Rosson, and the [[intertitle]]s from Julian Johnson.<ref>American Film Institute Catalog, The Docks of New York (1929). Retrieved April 24, 2018. https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/3785</ref>

Film critic [[John Baxter (author)|John Baxter]] observed that "''The Docks of New York''...is today the most popular of Sternberg's silent films, although it did poorly at the box-office on its release."<ref>Baxter, 1971. p. 54</ref>

''The Docks of New York'' was one of the last films of the silent era. Previewed by the New York City press during the same week that saw the fanfare opening of [[Al Jolson]]’s ''[[The Singing Fool]]'', Sternberg’s film was “completely passed over in the clamor” that accompanied the advent of talking pictures. Film critic [[Andrew Sarris]] lamented that Sternberg's film “quickly vanished in undeserved oblivion...confirm[ing] [[Charles Chaplin|Chaplin’s]] observation that the silent movies learned their craft just about the time they went out of business.”<ref name="SarrisP19">Sarris, 1966. p. 19</ref>

[[Museum of Modern Art]] film curator Charles Silver ranked ''The Docks of New York'' as “probably the last genuinely great silent film made in Hollywood [rivaling] Chaplin’s masterpieces of the 1930s.”<ref>Silver, 2012</ref> With respect to Sternberg's oeuvre, ''The Docks of New York'' was “the first in which his prodigious pictorial genius was fully realized.”<ref name="Muller"/> A “deceptively simple” and ‘emotionally affecting film”, Sternberg combined spectacle and emotion, where "his characters gain in clarity what they lose in complexity."<ref name="SarrisP19"/>

''The Docks of New York'' was added to the [[Criterion Collection]] as part of the “Three Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg” series.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.criterion.com/boxsets/744-3-silent-classics-by-josef-von-sternberg| title=3 Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg| website=The Criterion Collection| access-date=September 26, 2022}}</ref>