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Tuesday, January 22, 2019

PORT OF NEW YORK (1949)

Gritty police procedural teams up Treasury Agent Scott Brady and Customs Officer Richard Rober against Yul Brynner’s Mr. Big narcotics smuggler in some tasty Manhattan locations (High & Low), neatly handled film noir style by director Laslo Benedek & adventurous lenser George E. Diskant. The standout elements are Brynner, still with hair on his head in his film debut (a riveting, exotic presence, wooing or disposing of ladies & associates as necessary) and those real locations, especially on the docks & seedier parts of town, many now gone. The rest is a good enough, if fairly standard cop meller. A bit tougher than usual, it’s helped by a restricted budget that reduces gloss in the semi-documentary style popularized over @ 20th/Fox by producer Louis De Rochemont.* Extra nice touch from composer Sol Kaplan who picks up the opening theme of Shostakovich’s First Piano Concerto (Brynner even puts a 78rpm side on the turntable) to use as a leitmotif whenever Brynner shows on the scene with evil intent. Very effective! So too this neat indie pic.

DOUBLE-BILL: *Compare with De Rochemont/Henry Hathaway’s THE HOUSE ON 92nd STREET/’45.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Baby boomers will recognize Chet Huntley’s voice doing the over-generous narration.

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