Product Details

• Actors: Scott Brady, Richard Rober, K.T. Stevens, Yul Brynner, Arthur Blake
• Directors: Laslo Benedek
• Writers: Arthur A. Ross, Bert Murray, Eugene Ling, Leo Townsend
• Producers: Aubrey Schenck, James T. Vaughn
• Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Alpha Video
• DVD Release Date: December 21, 2004
• Run Time: 82 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0006IUDVC
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #211,497 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Port of New York" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It's about a shipment of sand, December 24, 2004

By 

Steven Hellerstedt "SH" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Port Of New York (DVD)

PORT OF NEW YORK is one of those low budget, Poverty Row productions that boasts a vibrant, quasi-documentary feel. Whether because of technical innovations (smaller, lighter cameras) or greater expertise (maybe the great World War II documentaries convinced film photographers to leave the studios now and then), the late forties saw a great number of films shot on gritty, big city streets. Films opened up and breathed, and the better stories acquired an urgent reality.

PONY is not one of the better stories. Eagle-Lion was one of the poorest of the poor studios, and greatest would be a little too much to expect. Moving from expensive studio sets to real, and free, locations must have been welcome indeed.

Most of these movies used a "from the files of (government agency)" approach. Here it's the Customs Department, vigilant guardians of our shores. Add a voice over narration, some stock shots of real custom agents cutting into real false heels (rascally smugglers!), and a pair of heroes almost as exciting as Dragnet's Joe Friday and you got yourself the makings of a movie. Add a case pulled from the files of, an interesting Bad Guy and you're booked.

The case, in this case, is that of the Florentine, a luxury liner that, we learn, is transporting a load of Bad Drugs to the ports of New York. The drugs, a hundred pounds or so of raw opium, is smuggled into New York and our customs agents at work are soon on the job. The top agent is PONY star Scott Brady, a decent enough actor who is asked to do nothing more than set a square jaw and do nothing to embarrass the Customs Department. Our bad guy, Yul Brynner, is fourth on the cast list and another story completely. Not only is he interesting and possessed of a second dimension, he dresses better than our hero, drapes beautiful women on his arm now and again, and generally revels in his sociopathology.

Yul Brynner's drug kingpin isn't a great screen villain, but he's good enough, especially for a low-rent production like this. Besides, given the naturalistic tone of PORT OF NEW YORK, a more stylized bad guy would have been out of place. In any event, like almost all screen villains of the time, Brynner's character has a high good time of it until the Code catches up with him.

** A BIG CAVEAT EMPTOR **

I'm reviewing the Pro-Active Entertainment copy of this film. For the last thirty minutes or so the sound track is seriously out of synch with the image track. By fully one second. Smoke shoots out of the barrel of a gun, lips move, and you can count one-Mississippi before you hear the fired shot or the spoken word. Very bad and extremely distracting. I was wrapped up in the movie enough to plow through it, but I wouldn't have purchased it in the first place if I'd known.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars your a frightened woman toni ! nervous,lying a very bad risk, April 23, 2010

By 

Scott Gibson (New Jersey, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Port of New York (1949) (DVD)

I purchased port of new york and liked it. It was about a drug smuggler who runs his operation through a new york yacht club. a young and talented yul Brenner plays the dapper drug lord who has custom agents richard rober and scott brady after him. the actor scott brady-who in real life is the actor lawrence tierneys younger brother- looks amazingly similar to actor ray liotta from goodfellas in this flick. The actress k.t. stevens plays yuls frightened wife who loves to be wealthy but is good at heart and doesn't want murder and blood on her hands.the poor girl ends up a "very bad risk" to yul as you will see if you watch this movie. I liked port of new york. It tells some of the story in documentary style so you can see how the treasury department and custom agents work. I reccommend this movie, especially if you like 1940's cops and robbers kind of action !

5.0 out of 5 stars The Florentine Case, March 1, 2011

By 

Acute Observer (N. Jersey Shore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Port of New York (VHS Tape)

Port of New York, 1949 film

The movie begins with a view of lower Manhattan in the late 1940s when docks lined the banks of the North River, and there were few skyscrapers there. This busy seaport is a place where contraband (like narcotics) is smuggled into the country. All incoming baggage is searched. The luxury liner "Florentine" had a shipment of opium from Turkey for a chemical company (for medical supplies). A lady passenger sees a man on deck with a rubber raft; both go overboard! A small boat approaches the man and takes him aboard. This man will say nothing. Miss Toni Cardell also passed inspection. She talks to Paul (who has hair); she is nervous. Customs agents finds a short weight in the narcotics shipment. An investigation begins. They start with the missing purser, then any known leads.

A phone call offers a lead about that "shipment of sand" for a 25% reward. [We see the old elevated railroad at the Canal St. station, soon to be torn down.] Toni promises more information later in the day. She is followed home. Has she been ungrateful? Paul takes action. We see the inside of the old Penn Station (torn down in 1964). Continental travel was by train then. The agents search all the rental lockers looking for a clue. Then they watch and wait, until the package is picked up and brought to the "Club Gay". The stand-up comic is picked up for questioning; he talks. "So what!" Will Dolly Carny's girl friend break and talk? Yes, they will get a doctor. A small boat is taken to the dry dock for cleaning. They look around, and search the boat works to find a surprise. Four men enter the office. One man is discovered and caught after a fight. Later an unidentified body is found in the bay.

The agents learn of the buyer from California. The surveillance continues. Carny is released, his pals greet him at home. "Suicide?" "Wyley" visits that yacht club to deal with the top man. Paul visits "Wyley". After he inspects the goods a messenger will bring the cash to the Brooklyn Municipal Pier. [Is there danger in using an operational agent for undercover work? Only if he is recognized.] Paul suspects "Wyley". The Coast Guard boards the yacht to capture the gang. Another smuggling gang is ended.

This is a good documentary about the work of the Treasury Department in trying to halt the illegal drug trade. No mention of other ports of entry (New Orleans, San Francisco, etc.) Most travel then across the Atlantic was done by cruise ship until the late 1950s. You can notice some things that are unmentionable then in this story. [It can be compared to the later "The French Connection". Official agents no longer work undercover.]