Sternberg proudly remembered Underworld as the first film that forced a movie theater to stay open all night because of public demand. Credited for starting the modern american gangster cycle, Underworld is a virtuoso study in tempo, elliptical visual style and off-centered story. George Bancroft, tough aristocrat of the crime world, combines brute strength and self-sacrifice in one of Sternberg’s many love triangles, here with introspective, intellectual clive brook and Bancroft’s gun moll feathers (Evelyn Brent). Wrote Sternberg: “to justify her name, i covered her with feathers, and even had feathers sewn on her underwear. Perhaps she felt uncomfortable in the tickling garment.” ben Hecht denounced what Sternberg did to his script, but took the academy award for it. “if the baby has to go barefooted this winter, if the roof leaks like a sieve, and even if the lizzie needs gasoline, dig down into the jeans and go see Underworld… It is bound to be one of the significant pictures of the year, and comes near being the best crook melodrama to reach the screen.” (‘Los Angeles Times”, august 27, 1927