Down River (1931) review: Foggy docks and a very young Charles Laughton

You should probably watch Down River if you have a soft spot for those early 1930s British thrillers where everyone sounds like they are auditioning for a play. If you hate crackly audio and movies where the lighting is just 'dark' then you will definitely want to skip this one. 🚢

I went into this mostly because I saw Charles Laughton in the credits. He plays Captain Barrett and honestly, even this early in his career, he just has this way of making everyone else on screen look like they are made of cardboard.

The story is pretty simple, or at least it tries to be. You got Cyril McLaglen playing a customs investigator who is trying to be a hero. He’s got a fiancée, Jane Baxter, who ends up getting way more involved in the smuggling stuff than any sane person would.

The whole thing takes place around the river, and the atmosphere is the best part. You can almost smell the damp wood and the oily water. It’s got that grimy London feel that modern movies try to fake with CGI, but here it’s just real fog and cheap sets.

Cyril McLaglen is okay, but he’s very stiff. He moves around like he’s worried he might break the floorboards if he steps too hard. His face doesn't really do much, which is a bit of a bummer when he’s supposed to be in love or in danger. 😐

Jane Baxter is a lot more fun to watch. She has these wide eyes and actually looks like she’s thinking about things, which is more than I can say for some of the other actors.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Down River (1931) through its definitive frames.

There is this one scene in a warehouse where the shadows are huge. It’s clearly meant to be scary, but the way the camera just sits there makes it feel more like a creepy painting. I kind of liked it, even if it went on a bit too long.

The smugglers themselves are a mixed bag. Some of them look like they just walked off the street and were handed a cap and a pipe. They don't really feel like dangerous criminals, just guys who are tired and want to go home.

Speaking of old movies that feel a bit disjointed, I was reminded of The Sorrowful Song of the Sea while watching the boat scenes. There's just something about the way they filmed water back then that feels heavy and slow.

The Laughton Factor

Laughton is the reason to stay tuned. He isn't the main star, but whenever he’s on, the movie feels smarter. He has this way of looking at people that makes you think he knows exactly how they’re going to die. It’s a bit unsettling but in a cool way.

He wears this captain's hat and just sort of looms. If the movie was just 80 minutes of him eating soup on a boat, I might have liked it more. The smuggling plot feels like it gets in his way sometimes.

There’s a lot of talk about a murder, and the mystery of who did it isn't really that mysterious. You can kind of guess what’s happening about twenty minutes in. But that’s fine, I wasn't expecting Sherlock Holmes here.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of Down River (1931) through its definitive frames.

The dialogue is very... proper. Even the criminals speak with this odd, clipped grammar. It makes the whole thing feel a bit like a bedtime story about gangsters.

I did find myself wondering about the logistics of the smuggling. They talk about it a lot but you don't see much of the actual stuff. It’s mostly just people pointing at crates and looking serious. 📦

It’s definitely not as weird as something like White Pants Willie, which is from around the same time. This one stays pretty grounded, for better or worse.

Small details that stuck with me

• The way everyone lights their cigarettes is so deliberate. It’s like a whole separate language of match-striking.
• There is a very loud whistle at one point that nearly blew out my speakers. Watch the volume.
• The hats. So many bowler hats. I don't know how they kept them on during the fight scenes.
• A reaction shot of a guy looking at a map that lasts way, way too long. We get it, he’s lost.

The ending is a bit of a rush. It’s like the filmmakers realized they were running out of film and decided to wrap everything up in about five minutes. One minute they are chasing guys, the next minute it's all over and everyone is fine.

It’s not a masterpiece, but it’s a solid bit of history. It’s better than The Love Piker if you want something with a bit more grit. Actually, it's just a totally different vibe, but you get what I mean.

If you're looking for a deep dive into the human soul, look elsewhere. If you want to see some guys in wool coats yelling about boats in the fog, you're in the right place. It’s a bit clunky, but it has character. ⚓

I’ll probably forget most of the plot by next week. But I’ll remember Laughton’s face and the way the water looked under those studio lights. Sometimes that’s enough for a Tuesday night movie.