''Border Incident'' is a 1949
film noir
Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...
featuring
Ricardo Montalbán
Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Merino, KSG (; ; November 25, 1920 – January 14, 2009) was a Mexican and American film and television actor. Montalbán's career spanned seven decades, during which he became known for performances in a var ...
,
George Murphy
George Lloyd Murphy (July 4, 1902 – May 3, 1992) was an American dancer, actor, and politician. Murphy was a song-and-dance leading man in many big-budget Hollywood musicals from 1930 to 1952. He was the president of the Screen Actors Guild fro ...
,
Howard Da Silva
Howard Da Silva (born Howard Silverblatt, May 4, 1909 – February 16, 1986) was an American actor, director and musical performer on stage, film, television and radio. He was cast in dozens of productions on the New York stage, appeared in mo ...
. Directed by
Anthony Mann
Anthony Mann (born Emil Anton Bundsmann; June 30, 1906 – April 29, 1967) was an American film director and stage actor.
Mann initially started as a theatre actor appearing in numerous stage productions. In 1937, he moved to Hollywood where ...
, the
MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
production was written by
John C. Higgins and
George Zuckerman
George Zuckerman (August 10, 1916 – September 30, 1996) was an American screenwriter and novelist.
Zuckerman began his career writing short stories for ''Cosmopolitan'', ''Collier's Weekly'', and '' Esquire'' in the 1940s. He wrote the st ...
. The film was shot by
cinematographer
The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the photographing or recording of a film, television production, music video or other live action piece. The cinematographer is the ch ...
John Alton
John Alton (October 5, 1901 – June 2, 1996), born Johann Jacob Altmann, in Sopron, Kingdom of Hungary, was an American cinematographer of Hungarian-German origin. Alton photographed some of the most famous films noir of the classic period and wo ...
, who used shadows and lighting effects to involve an audience despite the fact that the film was shot on a low budget.
Premise
The story concerns two agents, one Mexican (
PJF) and one American, who are tasked to stop the smuggling of Mexican
migrant worker
A migrant worker is a person who Human migration, migrates within a home country or outside it to pursue work. Migrant workers usually do not have the intention to stay permanently in the country or region in which they work.
Migrant worker ...
s across the border to California. The two agents go undercover, one as a poor migrant.
Cast
*
Ricardo Montalbán
Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán y Merino, KSG (; ; November 25, 1920 – January 14, 2009) was a Mexican and American film and television actor. Montalbán's career spanned seven decades, during which he became known for performances in a var ...
as Pablo Rodriguez
*
George Murphy
George Lloyd Murphy (July 4, 1902 – May 3, 1992) was an American dancer, actor, and politician. Murphy was a song-and-dance leading man in many big-budget Hollywood musicals from 1930 to 1952. He was the president of the Screen Actors Guild fro ...
as Jack Bearnes
*
Howard Da Silva
Howard Da Silva (born Howard Silverblatt, May 4, 1909 – February 16, 1986) was an American actor, director and musical performer on stage, film, television and radio. He was cast in dozens of productions on the New York stage, appeared in mo ...
as Owen Parkson
*
James Mitchell as Juan Garcia
*
Arnold Moss
Arnold Moss (January 28, 1910 – December 15, 1989) was an American character actor. His son was songwriter Jeff Moss.
Early years
Born in Flatbush, Moss was a third-generation Brooklyn native. He attended Brooklyn's Boys High School. ...
as Zopilote
*
Alfonso Bedoya
Benito Alfonso Bedoya y Díaz de GuzmánSan Antonio Light, Dec. 17, 1957, p. 20 (April 16, 1904 – December 15, 1957) was a Mexican actor who frequently appeared in U.S. films. He is best known for his role in ''The Treasure of the Sierra Madre ...
as Cuchillo
* Teresa Celli as Maria Garcia
*
Charles McGraw
Charles McGraw (born Charles Crisp Butters; May 10, 1914 – July 29, 1980) was an American stage, film and television actor whose career spanned more than three decades.
Early life
McGraw was born to Beatrice (née Crisp) and Francis P. B ...
as Jeff Amboy
* José Torvay as Pocoloco
*
John Ridgely
John Ridgely (born John Huntington Rea, September 6, 1909 – January 18, 1968) was an American film character actor with over 175 film credits.
Early years
Ridgely was born in Chicago, Illinois,Katz, Ephraim (1979). ''The Film Encyclopedia: T ...
as Mr. Neley
*
Arthur Hunnicutt
Arthur Lee Hunnicutt (February 17, 1910 – September 26, 1979) was an American actor known for his portrayal of wise, grizzled, and old rural characters. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in ...
as Clayton Nordell
*
Sig Ruman
Siegfried Carl Alban Rumann (October 11, 1884 – February 14, 1967), billed as Sig Ruman and Sig Rumann, was a German-American character actor known for his portrayals of pompous and often stereotypically Teutonic officials or villains i ...
as Hugo Wolfgang Ulrich
*
Jack Lambert as Chuck
*
Otto Waldis
Otto Waldis (born Otto Glucksmann-Blum, May 20, 1901 – March 25, 1974) was an Austrian-American character actor in films and television from the 1930s through the 1960s. He was also billed as Otto Blum.
Years in Germany
Waldis was born Otto ...
as Fritz
Production
The film was among a number of lower budgeted movies produced at MGM under the regime of
Dore Schary
Isadore "Dore" Schary (August 31, 1905 – July 7, 1980) was an American playwright, director, and producer for the stage and a prolific screenwriter and producer of motion pictures. He directed just one feature film, '' Act One'', the film bio ...
.
Reception
According to MGM records the film earned $580,000 in the US and Canada and $328,000 overseas resulting in a loss of $194,000.
Critical response
Roger Westcombe compared the film to classic
Western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
s: "Yet far from a typical Western's sense of freedom, ''Border Incident'' shares with
irector Mann's previous film noir''
T-Men
''T-Men'' is a 1947 semidocumentary and police procedural style film noir about United States Treasury agents. The film was directed by Anthony Mann and shot by noted noir cameraman John Alton. The production features Dennis O'Keefe, Mary Mea ...
'' that film's inky, submerged visual quality. These are 'wide' but not 'open' spaces, as Alton's beautifully registered grey-toned but grim visuals make the distant horizons as closed as the American border. The constant presence of vulnerable, innocent peasants adds a piquancy to ''Border Incident'', raising the stakes from the destiny of a mere two police agents to that of an entire underclass."
Westcombe, Roger
. Big House Film, review. Last accessed: December 25, 2007.
References
Notes
Bibliography
* Harry Tomicek: Das grosse Schwarz. ''Border Incident'', von Anthony Mann, Kamera: John Alton (1949). In: Christian Cargnelli, Michael Omasta .(eds.): Schatten. Exil. Europäische Emigranten im Film noir. PVS, Vienna 1997, .
External links
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{{Anthony Mann
1949 films
1949 crime films
American crime films
American black-and-white films
1940s English-language films
Film noir
Films scored by André Previn
Films about illegal immigration to the United States
Films directed by Anthony Mann
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
Procedural films
1940s American films