Port of New York (1949)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

Prints for this movie are horrible. Opens with neat scenes of NY circa 1945. The film is about the flow of narcotics into NY harbor.The movie is horrible. The music in no way reflects what's going on in the film. It's as if someone stuck a record on. It actually detracts do much from the movie that it becomes annoying.It's not really a film noir so much as it is a Dragnet like movieThe PlotAgents Mickey Waters and John Flannery re-team to investigate the theft of medicinal narcotics from the S.S. Florentine. The vicious gang responsible is headed by the ruthless, but debonair Paul Vicola, who doesn't hesitate to murder anyone who stands in his way. Vicola's girlfriend is garroted when she becomes unreliable, and when go-between nightclub comic Dolly Carney poses a risk, he is thrown from his apartment window. After Waters is shot and killed trying to break into the gang's Brooklyn-based yacht club front, Flannery decides to go undercover and pose as a San Francicco drug dealer. The gang is smoked out and after a furious gun battle, Vicola is apprehended and his gang broken.

***SPOILERS*** Keeping the ports and borders safe for the exploding epidemic of the post-WWII flow of illegal and dangerous drugs US Custom agents together with the FBI and the NYPD get wind of a big drug shipment that's been brought into New York Harbor on the luxury cruise liner Florntine.Checking the ships cargo manifest the custom agents Micky Waters and Jim Flannery, Scott Brady & Richard Rober, come across a box of dangerous drugs slated to be used at a local hospital that's missing and has been replaced with 100 pounds of worthless and harmless sand. Later the person responsible for the switch is found floating in the East River murdered by his contacts in order to keep his mouth shut.The leader of this gang of drug traffickers is the Suave cultured and music loving Paul Vicola, Yul Brynner. Vicola likes to keep things close to his very expensive vest and feels that his woman Toni Cardell, K.T Stevens, is a bit unhinged over what's been going on and has her followed by his hoods to see what she's up to. Toni, as Paul suspected, is about to give him and his gang up to the police and then, with what is expected to be a $25,000.00 reward, leave New York for the West Coast.Getting Toni alone in her apartment Paul finds that she's about to turn him and is boys in and strangles her to death, this as custom Agent Waters is sitting in the lobby of Toni's apartment building providing her with government protection. Waters and his partner Flannery later, on a tip from the late Toni Cardell, check out the lockers at Penn. Station and find the missing drug shipment, cut and ready to be sold on the streets, and set up a sting to find out who the locker belongs to.It turns out that the locker's contents are taken out and delivered, by special messenger, to entertainer Dolly Carney, Arthur Blake, who's fronting for Vicola's mob as a delivery boy. Putting Carney under arrest he breaks down and implicates Vicola's middle-man in this operation Leo Strosser, William Challee, who's involved in a ship maintenance business on the New York piers, a perfect place and cover to get drugs into the country.Risking their lives both Waters and Flannery go under cover to get the goods on both Strasser and his boss Vicola but at, what later turned out to be, the cost of Micky Waters life. Carney who's let out of police custody ends up being kidnapped by Vicola's goons and after telling them what they wanted to know, about this Wyley (Frank Fenton) coming from Canada to buy the stolen drugs, is thrown out a hotel window and made to look like it was suicide.The authorities take Wyley into custody with Agent Flannery going undercover impersonating him to get to the head of the drug gang Paul Vicola that leads to the movies exciting shoot-out at the Port of New York between Vicola and his hoodlum with the US Coast Guard and Custom agent Flannery.Yul Brynner with a head of hair steals the movies acting honors with his portrayal of gangster Paul Vicola who's as deadly and murderous when he's in business as a big time drug trafficker as he's sophisticated and debonair as a lover of the world of musics classical symphonies and piano concerto's

I thought this short film was good for a 1940ish B- movie film. It's about an opium smuggling in New York in the 1940's. The sinister opium dealer Paul Vicola played by Yul Brynner was excellent. Brynner's character in the film was the only interesting character but there is also Scott Brady 's character as the agent who try to catch Brynner's character. Vicola is so evil but suave, since Brynner had played evil roles throughout his movie career this is even the evilest role he had ever played. Also, Brynner's character Paul kills his girlfriend Toni. My favorite lines in the film : First scene when Toni tries to escape from PaulToni: I went to station to my get my ticketPaul: (looking through Toni's purse) And you lost your ticket on the way home...Toni, where you planning on going?Toni: Near the west coast, then travel whenever place I can get. Paul:(angrily) You are most ungrateful, Toni(pulling down the blinds and moves closer) most ungrateful.Second scene when Paul kills ToniPaul: You are a frightened woman, you're nervous and a lie. Toni: What do you mean, Paul? Paul: You are bad risk, Toni. A very risk! (grabs his handkerchief to smother Toni) (smother Toni until there's no life in her) Paul: Die you, bitch! What really amazed me in this film was Yul Brynner with his natural hair! If you want see Brynner before his shaved dome then this is the movie for you.

Hi, Everyone, Scott Brady has an idea how to steal a scene from Yul Brynner. Scott Brady has better hair, but Yul has the voice and facial expressions that show he was destined for a big Hollywood career.This was 7 years before The King and I would make Yul Brynner a bald box office giant. Much of Yul's pleasant killer personality would be used in future bad guy roles such as Westworld, The Ten Commandments and Magnificent Seven. In this 1949 film, Yul seems to enjoy playing cat and mouse with his intended victims. He being the cat, of course.Scott Brady did an excellent job as the good guy here. Lots of good action scenes with Scott apparently doing his own falls.The plot basically is the bad guys want to bring one million dollars worth of narcotics into the U.S. One million dollars worth of narcotics today would be a misdemeanor.This is a joy to watch just for the history. DeSoto Cabs follow Checker Cabs. Grand Central Station is shown during rush hour. Rush hour was anytime in the 1940s. Men's suits looked smart. Neville Brand is seen here shortly after his World War II service ended. He is the guy who is operating the ship's steering wheel in some scenes.All of New York looks dressed up for a holiday but that is just what people wore in 1949. Good scenes, good plot, good cast.The guy who plays Dolly Carney does an excellent job. His name was Arthur Blake. Interestingly, Yul Brynner, Scott Brady and Arthur Blake all died in 1985.This one is worth watching.Tom Willett