“Despite the fact that Donald Crisp has made a name for himself in the history of cinema as actor, playing the role of Buttling Burrows, violent ring fighter and brutish father, in D.W. Griffith’s Broken Blossoms, he also pursued a successful career as film director, which started in 1914 and continued throughout the following decade. The Cop, his third to last film, is a solidly built police story rotating around on the most common theme of this genre: the manly friendship between the policeman and the criminal, forced by turns of event to fight on opposite sides. The film takes advantage of Crisp’s skill in shooting the action scenes (see for example the episode of the bank robbery, perfect in its editing) and Willian Boyd’s acting, who almost throughout the whole film, depicts the role of the cop in an odd slapstick-like version, stressing his inadequacy and abtuseness. But The Cop ought also to be praised for the frequency by which sounds and background noise are evoked, by using just images, and made almost audible – the film was made in 1929 at the onset of the sound period. Given this quality of this film and the importance placed – although indirectly – on sound, it is rather astounding that, after the success of talkies, Crisp chose suddenly to stop his career as director to resume acting again”.

Leonardo Gandini