Port of New York is a 1949 American film noir/crime film directed by László Benedek with cinematography by George E. Diskant and shot in semidocumentary style. The film is notable for being Yul Brynner s first film appearance, and he had not yet begun shaving his head. The film, which is very similar to T-Men (1947), was shot on location in New York City.

Plot

The film narrated by Chet Huntley (future NBC nightly newscaster) tells the story of two federal agents, one from Customs and one from Narcotics, out to stop the distribution of an opium shipment stolen in the Port of New York by drug dealers. The leader of the drug dealers is the suave Paul Vicola (Brynner).

Customs agent Waters and FBI agent Flannery jointly investigate the pure opium shipment that goes missing on the S.S. Florentine. The purser was murdered. Toni Cardell was a passenger on the ship and girlfriend of drug dealer Paul Vicola. Because she played a part in the smuggling, she is upset about the murder and wants out. When Vicola refuses to stake her for a new life elsewhere, Toni calls the police to become an informant. She makes a brief interview on a subway platform with Flannery to plan another meeting, but Vicola garrotes her before she can complete her plans. She had a train reservation so police search all the lockers at Penn railroad station and find a parcel of opium drugs. They stake out the locker and follow the pick-up man to a nightclub. Comic Dolly Carney, the recipient, discloses under police pressure his contact, Leo Stasser, at North River Yacht, a local marina. Carney s friend, a dancer at the nightclub named Lili Long, observed his arrest by Waters and Flannery, and, on a tip from the nightclub owner, goes to Vicola for help.

Waters and Flannery stake out Stasser at his harbor marina. Waters slips in, under cover, by working on a boat there. That night, they search Stasser s office and find he has all the lab supplies ready to cut the junk. Flannery also finds a message from a G.W. Wyley about the drug deal. Stasser and his men return and find Waters, but Flannery escapes. The next day Waters is found floating dead in the bay. Stasser bails Carney out of jail. Intending to silence him, Stasser throws Carney out the window of the comic s high-rise apartment.

The police arrest Wyley on his flight layover in Chicago; Flannery then assumes the identity of Wyley, arriving at La Guardia as scheduled to complete the drug deal. As the deal proceeds on Vicola s yacht, Lili Long comes to him again to find out why Carney would have killed himself. She exposes Flannery as a cop, and a shootout starts. The Coast Guard is following the yacht, and Vicola and his drug gangsters are caught. The narrator states that justice is served .

Cast

• Scott Brady as Michael Mickey Waters, U.S. Customs agent
• Richard Rober as Jim Flannery, FBI agent
• K.T. Stevens as Miss Toni Cardell, moll
• Yul Brynner as Paul Vicola, drug smuggler
• Arthur Blake as Dolly Carney, nightclub comic
• Lynne Carter as Lili Long, nightclub dancer
• John Kellogg as Lenny, gang member
• William Challee as Leo Stasser, harbor boss
• Gordon Richards as Florentine s Purser (uncredited)

Reception

Critical response

The film critic of The Austin Chronicle generally liked the film, writing,

Semi-documentary police procedurals became quite popular for a while in the late Forties, with lots of location shooting and official-sounding voiceovers. Port of New York follows in the style of The House on 92nd Street and Jules Dassin s The Naked City, with a fair amount of suspense and plenty of violent fisticuffs. George Diskant brought his striking camera work to bear as well; sometimes the dark film is so dark it s hard to even see what s going on. Most notable, however, is Brynner s first film role; he plays Vicola with sleek menace and self-assured evil (and with a full head of hair, too, I might add). Not an outstanding film, Port of New York is well-suited to its subject matter and has been rather neglected for years.

Film critic Dennis Schwartz retrospectively gave the film a mixed review, writing,

An unknown Yul Brynner, with all his hair, in his first film role, plays a well-spoken, smug narcotics smuggler named Paul Vicola. It s directed by Lazslo Benedek (The Wild One/The Night Visitor/Death of a Salesman) in a voice-over documentary style…It generates an authentic sinister atmosphere, having been filmed on location in New York. The police investigation procedural drama plays as minor film noir, that follows along the usual routine lines for such Eagle-Lion cheapie crime stories … Not much to get excited about, but it does feature an early acting part by Yul Brynner as a ruthless gangster.

Year	1949
ReleaseDate	1949-11-28
RuntimeMins	82
RuntimeStr	1h 22min
Plot	Two narcotics agents go after a gang of murderous drug dealers who use ships docking at the New York harbor to smuggle in their contraband.
Directors	Laslo Benedek
Writers	Eugene Ling, Leo Townsend, Arthur A. Ross
Stars	Scott Brady, Richard Rober, K.T. Stevens
Produced by	Aubrey Schenck,James T. Vaughn
Music by	Sol Kaplan
Cinematography by	George E. Diskant
Film Editing by	Norman Colbert
Art Direction by	Edward L. Ilou
Set Decoration by	Armor Marlowe
Makeup Department	Edith Westmore,Ern Westmore
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director	Ridgeway Callow
Sound Department	Leon Becker,Hugh McDowell Jr.
Visual Effects by	Roy Seawright
Editorial Department	John Hoffman
Music Department	Irving Friedman
Genres	Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Companies	Aubrey Schenck Productions
Countries	USA
Languages	English
ContentRating	Approved
ImDbRating	6
ImDbRatingVotes	940
Keywords	man murders a woman,man slaps a woman,female police officer,police,timeframe 1940s