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Borderline
Two undercover agents infiltrate a drug-smuggling ring in Mexico, thee find them selves falling in love with each other. Neither is aware of the other's identity As they decide to make a run for the border.
Release : | 1950 |
Rating : | 6 |
Studio : | Universal Pictures, Borderline Productions Corp., Milton H. Bren and William A. Seiter Productions, |
Crew : | Production Design, Set Decoration, |
Cast : | Fred MacMurray Claire Trevor Raymond Burr José Torvay Morris Ankrum |
Genre : | Drama Thriller Crime |
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Reviews
Pretty Good
Nice effects though.
Captivating movie !
Boring
Near the beginning of the film there is a god awful scene of six Lucille Balls dancing out of sync shrilly singing "La la la, La la la" in high pitched voices reminiscent of a Three Stooges background music. If you can get past that the rest of the movie will seem brilliant. You might want to consider fast forwarding through that or turning off the sound. I can't get that shrill "singing" out of my head.I liked it that they didn't have subtitles for the Spanish used in the movie. I didn't always catch what was said but it made it more interesting.
Customs agents are looking for information about Pete Ritchie.He is involved in smuggling drugs into the US.Police officer Madeleine Haley goes undercover in order to gain Ritchie's confidence, and before long she meets him through one of his associates.Doesn't this sort of sound like another movie made around this time??As she is talking with Ritchie, Johnny Macklin and one of his men burst in, and they provoke a violent confrontation. From then on, Haley is in constant danger as she attempts to figure out everything that is happening in the smuggling operation.OK but the widest lapels on the planet do not a good movie make.
"Borderline" is sometimes classified as film noir, but it's really a combination of crime drama and romantic comedy. Since she could pass for a one of those "cheap, tawdry-looking dames" and "speaks a pretty good Mexican," star Claire Trevor (as Madeleine Haley) is chosen to investigate dope-smuggling "sucker for dames" Raymond Burr (as Pete Ritchie) down South. Don't miss Mr. Burr's reaction to the dolled-up Ms. Trevor dancing as one of the "la-la, la-la" girls. He responds to her "come hither" with a "vamoose!" When Burr finally succumbs to the older woman's charms, fist-throwing Fred MacMurray (as Johnny Macklin) enters the picture. The glee with which Mr. MacMurray smacks his cast-mates around doesn't match the impending revelation about the character. Next thing you know, Trevor and MacMurray are off on a road trip resembling "It Happened One Night" and falling in love. MacMurray gets the line, "Who do you have to know around here to get something to eat?" Big stars are catered to, sir, check with Norman Cook.*** Borderline (3/1/50) William A. Seiter ~ Claire Trevor, Fred MacMurray, Raymond Burr, Morris Ankrum
**SPOILERS** Even though the movie "Borderline" is about a serious subject drug smuggling, and has a number of people killed in it, it comes across more like a 1930's type screwball comedy. Johnny McEvoy aka MacKlin and Madeleine Haley aka Gladys LaRue, Fred MacMurray & Claire Trevor, are working undercover in Mexico and unknown to each other who they really are. Each one thinks that the other is a criminal trying to get each other arrested by the US border police after they cross into California with a load of illegal drugs.It's amazing to me that a criminal sharpie like Pete Ritchie, Raymond Burr, couldn't spot these two undercover US law enforcers, posing as a gangster and floozy, as soon as he laid his eyes on them. Ritchie must have either been high or suffering from brain damage from the drugs he was smuggling. After ripping Ritchie off of his drug stash the two are on the run to get to the Mexican border with the drug shipment only to get each other arrested by the border police. All this without realizing that they both play for the same team the US Custom Services, Macklin, and the L.A Police department, Haley.I couldn't get over the fact that the two fell in love with each other, which was obvious at the end of the movie, yet were more then willing to turn each other over to the authorities where they could have gotten long prison time for drug trafficking? Doesn't true love mean anything to these two? Couldn't they just let each other get away and concentrate on the capturing the major dealer and head of the drug smuggling ring? The FBI let Sammy "The Bull" Gravono, who admittedly murdered 19 people, walk away Scot-free in order to get his boss John Gottie behind bars with his testimony and nobody, as far as I know, in the FBI was madly in love with Sammy! The two crime fighters are now together in their efforts to stop the drug smuggling gang led by Mr.Big himself Harvey Gumbin, Roy Roberts. Harvey wasn't that much smarter then his Man in Mexico Pete Ritchie by not realizing who this McEvoy really was, an undercover government agent. In the end there was an incredible shootout at Harvey's hideout, where McEvoy brought the drug shipment. McEvoy himself urged on Harvey's gangster to shoot it out with the police, in order not to blow his cover, endangering not only himself but the very police that were coming to his rescue! The best way to enjoy the movie "Borderline" is to watch it only for unintentional laughs.