Great indy movie; terrible print
M. Maloney | denver, Co | 04/11/2009
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Recently, I've discovered William Boyd beyond (or before) he "became" Hopalong Cassidy. Bottom line, he was a great actor and Port of Lost Dreams is a worthy piece of early '30s independent filmmaking. Bill Boyd was relegated these types of films from the outskirts of his Hollywood Matinee idol days for a few years until he accepted the role of Hoppy. This was because of a scandal involving an actor named William "stage" Boyd. Unfortunately, William "Hoppy" Boyd was the one who suffered.
The budget of this film is really low, the supporting players are okay, but Boyd shines. And it's worth seeing it if you are interested in independent movies, B movies or William Boyd.
Unfortunately, Alpha Video's print is just plain lousy as I have discovered with a number of their products. There doesn't seem to be any attempt at remastering or much of anything. So as much as I recommend this film, I would try to find a copy from another company. I hope a clean copy becomes available soon! It's a very worthy picture as most of Bill Boyd's post-Hollywood pre-Hoppy films are."