Port of Lost Dreams

Harold Huber is caught by the police, and they're looking for his girl friend, Lola Lan, whom they suspect of being involved in his crimes. She stows away on board William Boyd's fishing boat. At first he seems to be a member of the He-Men Women Haters Club, but eventually they wear each other down, get married, and have a baby. They decide to get away from the sea and Boyd arranges to sell the ship just as Huber escapes and comes looking for Lola.... and some vengeance.

It's a well cast Gower Gulch B movie, directed at a fast clip by Frank Strayer. Lane, the eldest of the Lane sisters, would soon work her way out of Poverty Row and into a Warner Brothers contract. Boyd was just hanging on to leading man status, although far from his glory days working for Demille. He would begin to revive his career and his fortunes with his next movie: HOP-ALONG CASSIDY.

Up until the last 10 minutes or so, I actually enjoyed "Port of Lost Dreams". It wasn't a great film and was generally VERY predictable but it entertained. Unfortunately, the finale of the movie is among the dumbest ever put on film stock, so by the time it ended, I was more than ready to turn it off and watch something better (and that sure wouldn't have been hard).

The film begins with a hood in a prison hospital. Louie (Harold Huber) has been shot after a huge crime spree and the cops want him to divulge information about his moll (in 1930s talk, that's the gangster's woman). Louie, however, keeps his mouth shut and is remains in prison for much of the film.

As for Molly (Lola Lane), she is in hiding and keeping a very low profile. However, when she chooses to hide out on a dry docked boat, this ends up leading to a real adventure. You see, two Popeye-like sailors end up in a big brawl and rush back to the boat to avoid the law. They launch the boat and sail away--not realizing Molly is aboard. What happens next, for the most part, is by-the-numbers--and very predictable. At first, Molly and Lars (Bill Boyd) hate each other--which in most older films indicates that soon they'll fall in love and get married. The only surprise at this point is that they got married and had a child pretty quickly and there would be more to the story. The more? Louie breaks out and ultimately kills someone. However, it looks like Lars did it and to prove his innocence, she tells everyone (including Lars) who she really is. Again, this is not bad. But what Lars then does....yech!! If you care to see the film (and I DON'T recommend it), you'll see what I mean. Bad in a way that makes you cringe or your eyes roll--it's THAT bad! And, because of this, it's a film I would only recommend to people I hate!

By the way, if you didn't know, Bill Boyd soon became the B-movie cowboy star Hoppalong Cassidy. Before then, then had a pretty extensive career as a leading man dating back to the 1920s.

I first tried to tape this on the old SPN cable channel that also offered gems like "Port of Missing Girls". It is almost a light version of this movie. Girl gets in trouble with the law; she stows away on William Boyd's ship. Crewmember Edward Gargan is there with nice comic relief, as well as Harold Huber, who must have needed a few bucks when this was being filmed. Though everyone seems to be in trouble here, they have no problem avoiding the law until they want to be confronted by them.

All of that said, it is an enjoyable little cruise with no harm no foul. The ship interior shots are really neat, and for a brief moment in time you get that Arrrrrrrrh, me bucko feel.

Though by any standards, this film doesn't even attain average, I enjoyed it and will look at it again and again, maybe as the first billing in a double feature with "Port of Missing Girls" or "Woman Who Came Back" as the main feature. Definitely much better at two in the morning. That and your deck of "51" will get you through to dawn.