Port of New York (1949)

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

PORT OF NEW YORK is a low budget crime thriller of 1949 in which a couple of narcotics agents go up against a criminal organisation smuggling drugs in through the New York docks. As a film it's very much par for the course and a product of its era, mostly a police procedural with a few scenes of interest here and there. There's a large cast but the characters tend to be underwritten so it's difficult to care about whether the heroes live or die; this is the kind of genre that would reach its peak some 20 to 30 years later in the films made by Roy Scheider and his contemporaries. Chiefly of interest is the casting of a youthful Yul Brynner - with hair! - as the bad guy, supported by a debuting Neville Brand as a snarling henchman.

Good gritty docu-drama of the procedural sort made popular by The Naked City (1948). Here we follow a Customs agent (Rober) and a Treasury agent (Brady) as they track down a gang of narcotics smugglers headed by a hirsute Yul Brynner in his first film. Unlike most docu- dramas of the period, this one is not overly diverted by procedure. Instead, the drama plays out in pretty tense fashion. Happily, the rather complex storyline is fashioned smoothly by director Benedek, despite the many segues. Then too, the live shots of New York are especially revealing to a non-New Yorker like myself, even if they are decades old.The faces in the movie also furnish a boost. There're the three gimlet-eyed hard cases (Challee, Stevens, Kellogg), the exotic looking Brynner, and the two meek-looking fall-guys (Blake, Carter), while Rober and Brady are appropriately clean-cut and strong-jawed. Brynner, of course, is particularly notable for his effortless accent and Euro-Asian appearance. The latter seems appropriate for a time when the Cold War was heating up. Thus Hollywood's lauding law enforcement at a tense time comes as no surprise.Except for Brynner and a couple jarring scenes as when Brynner turns on the disloyal Stevens, there's nothing particularly memorable here. Just solid entertainment done in highly competent fashion.

Had a chance to sit down and watch PORT OF NEW YORK some time ago and I have to say that this is a terrific little noir/crime/thriller! Told in "documentary style" as in such films as HOUSE ON 92ND STREET, THE NAKED CITY and HE WALKED BY NIGHT, the movie is swiftly paced, violent with a decent amount of suspense and plenty of fisticuffs. Scott Brady and Richard Rober play a couple of federal agents, one a customs agent and the other a treasury agent out to stop the distribution of illegal "contraband", i.e., opium, that came in on a ship but was smuggled off by drug dealers. The leader of the drug operation is Yul Brynner, sporting a head of dark, wavy hair and appearing in his first film role I believe. Brynner is suave and refined and listens to avant-garde piano music but it is clear that he is also quite cold and violent as the bodies start to pile up. Plenty of action to keep one interested and wonderful direction from Laslo Benedek. The real star though is cinematographer George E. Diskant. Filmed entirely on location in New York City, the film bursts to life with magnificent images of the Big Apple and some truly wonderful shots of the NYC maritime scene. This is a rather obscure, "B" noir/crime film that was a pleasant surprise and a movie that all fans of the genre should check out.

This fine crime drama shows the work Federal agents in Customs, Narcotics and the Coast Guard did to fight the drug trade in 1949's New York City. This is known as Yul Brynner's first movie, but the real star is Scott Brady.With 59 years having past, I found this movie an unintended heartbreak. Young people might not believe this but in 1949 the narcotics trade was limited to small areas of New York, Chicago and Los Angeles --- not all 50 states, not every town in America. The Federal agents portrayed in this movie might have just cried if they could have seen 14 years into the future when narcotics swept across the USA like a hurricane and infected our lives, our streets, our schools.All this was done with the Federal government opening the door wide. When LBJ appointed crime-friendly Ramsey Clark as Attorney-General and appointed crime-friendly judges to the Supreme Court, this and other corrosive steps were applauded by Newsweek, Time, CBS and others. New York City lost 20% of its population and literally went bankrupt in the late '70's --- primarily because of unchecked crime. The 1966 movie "Death Wish" portrays this era well. This was your parents and grandparents era. It could not have happened without them. When you have time, search for their stash and tell them off.