Port of 40 Thieves (1944) User Reviews

Nice apartment

[AAdaSC · 7/10 · 29 September 2016]

Wealthy widow Stephanie Bachelor (Muriel) approaches lawyer Tom Keene (Scott) to formally see her through her right to claim her inheritance. Her husband has been missing for 7 years which means he can legally be pronounced dead and his Estate passed onto her. One problem, though, a cheque signed by him turns up at the 11th hour. Is he still alive? Other traces of him start to appear and we have a mystery on our hands. Can Stephie make it to mega-wealthdom?

This is an enjoyable film if a bit tricky to follow at the beginning. Who on earth are all these women? By the end of the film, things make sense but it was a bit confusing at the beginning. Some good scenes and a couple of murders in this effort. It has a good setting, a storyline that keeps you watching and some scenes that stick with you afterwards. In fact, the memory of it is probably better than when you are actually watching it! The hunger for money is what drives our main character and she is thoroughly unpleasant which makes a good villainess.

I've spoken to lift maintenance workers who have told me of very unusual things found at the bottom of lift shafts, including live piglets. Stephanie Bachelor may have been thinking of a different sort of collection.

A Poverty Row "film gris"

[melvelvit-1 · 7/10 · 4 July 2014]

Statuesque Stephanie Bachelor (the haughty "Princess Nirvena" in LADY OF BURLESQUE) stars as an arch Park Avenue playgirl who wants her missing millionaire husband declared dead. That's easier said than done, however -she knows the guy's a goner because she killed him but now it looks like he's come back ...so what in the hell's going on?

A breezy Manhattan murder mystery that would have made a great noir had it come a few years later. It was filmed around the same time as Paramount's DOUBLE INDEMNITY, a much-imitated film from which it can be said the "noir style" sprang after every studio in town began to replicate it and Republic would get in on the action a few years later with a couple of Vera Hruba Ralston noirs (MURDER IN THE MUSIC HALL, THE FLAME) but this 1944 quickie (a fast-paced 58 minutes) has more light than shadow and an ending that's a bit too frivolous ***SPOILER*** (the villainess is only wounded and asks if she can go shopping before being taken away so's she can be the best dressed woman in court) ***END SPOILER*** to fit comfortably in the noir canon. That said, Bachelor's impulsive black widow with her arsenal of murder, attempted murder, blackmail, and sexual seduction is right up there with the best femme fatales Poverty Row had to offer (along with Jean Gillie in DECOY, Janis Paige in NIGHT EDITOR, and Ann Savage in DETOUR) and she looks fabulous in those '40s hairstyles and fashions, too.

Decent programmer but nothing remarkable

[XhcnoirX · 6/10 · 2 March 2016]

Stephanie Bachelor is the wife of a wealthy author who disappeared 7 years ago, after writing an expose on fraudulent bankers. She thinks it's time to get him declared dead, and hires lawyer Richard Powers. Bachelor admits to her lover George meeker she killed her husband, and after blackmailing banker Russell Hicks for several years, whom she kept out of her husband's book, she feels it's finally time to get her husband's fortune. But then a cheque appears, with her dead husband's signature on it, as well as a jacket belonging to him. Keene follows the trail and comes across Lynne Roberts, who initially helps him. But Bachelor is not the only one with a secret.

Clocking in at under an hour, this movie holds more plot than several of these B-programmers combined, while keeping the amount of plot holes respectably low (relatively speaking). It's a lean and mean movie that was made to entertain and that it does reasonably well. And while it doesn't have the typical noir-look (there are some venetian blinds shadows and such, but the interior scenes are remarkably brightly lit for a Republic quickie) it features a femme fatale, blackmail, murder, secret identities and a dead man who may be alive after all. In short, a decent example of an early poverty row noir.

Bachelor is good here, and who doesn't enjoy watching a scheming femme fatale work her magic with a sly smile across her face?! Roberts is also decent in a 'girl Friday' type role who turns out to be someone different altogether. Powers, who had worked under the name Tom Keene for over a decade prior to the name-change (his real name's George Duryea, but he's not related to Dan Duryea), is okay but lacks presence and charisma.

There is nothing really remarkable about the directing, except for a handful of nicely done voice-overs that are mixed well with spoken words. The movie itself doesn't really stand out overall, but it holds up decently well, and has a fine femme fatale as well as an alternative use for diamond bracelets that your local jeweler will not tell you about. 6/10

Watch That First Step

[frontrowkid2002 · 30 December 2007]

I haven't seen this film in years, but there was a clip of it in the Republic Pictures story. Apparently, Stephanie Batchelor has a thing for older wealthy men and she commits the perfect crime by rigging up an elevator so that the door opens to an empty shaft. Saying goodnight to her boyfriend, she pushes the button to the door and gives him a nudge. Don't know how the movie turns out, but I would like to find a copy. I contacted her years ago when she lived in Las Vegas for an autograph. I had a shot of her from the Roy Rogers film, Springtime in the Sierras, where she plays a cold-hearted villainous who shoots an elderly game warden in the stomach. Her line is "This may hurt a little." In a Roy Rogers movie, yet. Man, that's cold.

There's nothing as exciting as a murderous Spider-Woman, as long as you're not the fly.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 11 December 2018]

She obviously believes that the best men are, like Madeline Kahn once said, strong, durable and disposable. She's Stephanie Bachelor, a forgotten 1940's femme fatale who got bumped off among the bumps and grinds of "Lady of Burlesque", but here, she's the one doing the bumping off. Bachelor's Muriel Chaney is a clever little minx who to paraphrase Lorenz Hart, has ingenious ways of keeping her love alive. When she hires criminal attorney Tom Keene to find her missing husband, it's obvious that she knows what happened to him, and after confiding it to her latest middle aged conquest (George Meeker), it's obvious that she'll be taking care of him, too. Muriel is so terrible that she stops to vicious blackmail as well, claims murder victims as suicidal, and dramatically faints on cue at the perfect opportunity.

Then there's hotel clerk Lynne Roberts who aids Keene in the case, obviously holding her own secrets, from both Keene and her devoted aunt (Olive Blakeney). There are insinuations that each of the women are equally calculating, but the real fun comes from watching each step that Bachelor takes, each one more desperate, and each one plotting her pathway to exposure. This lavish looking Republic B film noir shows that even the poverty row studios can rival the A's. Bachelor is up there with the same year's Barbara Stanwyck in "Double Indemnity" and Claire Trevor in "Murder My Sweet" as one of the great early film noir bad girls, and it's always a delight to find new vixens to study for their theatricality and self destructive behavior. I'd actually say that bachelor in characterization is actually closer to Gale Sondergaard in the same years Sherlock Holmes thriller, "The Spider Woman".

Excellent b noir

[gordonl56 · 8/10 · 26 September 2008]

Port of 40 Thieves - 1944

Once more I dig into that seemingly endless supply of low rent programmers put out by Republic Pictures. These things are always a hit or miss deal with the miss column usually victorious. This one though is a hands down knockout. A great little femme-fatale quickie with plot enough for 3-4 of these features.

Stephanie Bachelor plays the lead in this black widow sleeper. Bachelor is the wife of a missing writer who just happens to be worth a million or two. Hubby has been missing now for seven years and it is time to have him declared legally dead so she can claims the cash. She hires big time lawyer Tom Keene to set the paperwork in motion. She wants to "move on with my life" she tells Keene.

Keene takes the case and starts with a little background work on the missing husband. The husband it seems had written an expose (Port of 40 Thieves) on New York banker types and how they had amassed their fortunes. Needless to say this did not go over very well and he disappeared shortly afterwards. Most seem to believe that someone mentioned in the book had got some payback.

Now the flies in the ointment begin to appear. A cheque signed by the missing man shows up. Phone calls to Bachelor's apartment asking to speak to her husband start. One of his old jackets is found lying across the sofa. Someone is trying to put the scare into Bachelor but she refuses to get rattled. Her current squeeze, George Meeker, asks why she is so calm. She looks him in the eye, and tells him. "I know he is dead, because I killed him." She says that the cheque etc. must be someone trying to make a play for some cash.

Bachelor has been supporting herself during the last 7 years by doing a spot of blackmail. She has some papers of hubby's on a financier who had not made it into his expose. She has been bleeding him dry in order to keep herself in the style she is used to.

Stephanie soon discovers who might be after her. It seems there is a grown daughter from the dear departed husband's first marriage. The daughter, Lynne Roberts, is sure that Bachelor killed her father and intends to prove it. Bachelor decides it is time to hit the road before things get nasty. A trip to South America seems in order. She puts the bite on the financier for 50 large in traveling expenses. Now she just needs to tie up a loose end or two. First, paramour Meeker goes for a twelve floor ride without the benefit of an elevator. Then a less than friendly end to Roberts at the end of a revolver is planned. Roberts is only saved by the timely arrival of Keene who has finally tumbled to the truth about Bachelor. This is much better than I'm making this sound. There are plenty of twists and turns here and at only 58 minutes it just rockets along. Good little programmer.

The cast includes Russell Hicks, Ellen Lowe, Mary Field and even though he is not in the film, there is a large portrait of Roy Barcroft as the dead husband. Keene appeared in DANGEROUS INTRUDER, CROSSFIRE, BERLIN EXPRESS, RACE STREET and BLOOD ON THE MOON. Stephanie Bachelor's films include, CRIME OF THE CENTURY, HOMICIDE FOR THREE, BLACKMAIL and EXPERIMET PERILOUS.

The d of p was b movie stalwart Jack A. Marta. Marta made about 100 low budget features at Republic before hitting the big time with the likes CAT BALLOU, PLAZA SUITE, DUEL and several of those terrible Billy Jack movies. The director was veteran serial director John English.

Mystery programmer

[searchanddestroy-1 · 23 January 2023]

Not that interesting this Republic Pictures movie directed by John English, more known for the serials he made with William Witney. But English was more responsible of the talking part of the magnificent serials, the best ever of Hollywood industry. Here, with this bland film, he proves that he is good on talking. Oh, that's not a garbage junk either, if you crave for lost Republic films, short ones, plenty of atmosphere of the forties period, you can try this one. The story is not the least interesting ever, a "black widow" scheme, it remains an acceptable time waster, and forty seven minutes is not a long torture....