Underworld 1927

Mordaunt Hall, New York Times: Largely through the competent work of Messrs. Bancroft and Brook, Mr. von Sternberg gives a better idea of his powers as a director. Read more

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader: The first full-fledged gangster movie and still an effective mood piece. Read more

Richard Brody, New Yorker: Sternberg's richly ornamental compositions-which are dense with shadows and objects that separate viewers from the action-suggest a willful distance from his characters. Read more

Tony Rayns, Time Out: The film radiates total confidence in its own means and methods, and the themes are wholly Sternberg's. Read more

Variety Staff, Variety: There's a wallop right through and yet the film retains romance, clicks not a little on comedy and even whitewashes itself with a 'moral.' Read more