Border Incident (1949)

The Plot:To penetrate a gang exploiting illegal Mexican farmworkers smuggled into California (and leaving no live witnesses), Mexican federal agent Pablo Rodriguez poses as an ignorant bracero, while his American counterpart Jack Bearnes works from outside. Soon, both are in deadly danger from the ringleader, sinister rancher Owen Parkson, and find night on the farm to be full of shadowy film-noir menace.Dated with absurd stereotyped characters that had to be hokey even back when this film was made in 1949.If you're Mexican you are either a tirelessly god fearing good person who works hard for a few dollars that may be stolen from you crossing the border, or you're thieving scum who will kill your fellow man.The acting is as idiotic and thin as the script. There's actually a woman who feels the braceros hands before they are approved to go to ensure the hands a rough. OMG! It's so dumb.This surely was a grade C movie when it came out.

Though "Border Incident" is billed as a film noir and was a collaboration between the famous duo of director Anthony Mann and cinematographer John Alton (who did make several noirs together), it doesn't really have a noir sensibility. Part of that is due to the fact that it is set not in a claustrophobic urban environment but in the wide open spaces of the southern U.S. It's also partly due to a lack of many of the thematic elements that are so predominant in true noirs. It's really just a crime thriller, starring Ricardo Montalban as an undercover detective who is trying to stop a criminal set up that exploits illegal immigrants from Mexico. It's an o.k. film but not a great one -- it's got a satisfyingly gritty and sweaty atmosphere, but there's something just missing that prevents it from being one of those really good "B" movies. There is a gruesome and shocking scene late in the film that adds a surprising twist to the proceedings, and that's what I most remember about the movie in general.Grade: B-

Border Incident (1949)This is an amazing movie. There are moments when it feels a little forced, or once or twice a little politicized, but the rest of the time this is as good as post-war movies get (and I'm a complete devotee of this period). John Alton's photography is worth seeing alone, even without the sound it's so good, not that you would want to avoid the fantastic score by Andre Previn. And the direction by Anthony Mann at the peak of his intensity is sharp and beautifully controlled. The story is largely broken into two parts, though even these two get complicated, so you have to pay attention. Action moves from Mexican to the American side back and forth, following an American agent and a Mexican one (played by the handsome Ricardo Montalban), both undercover. They cross paths more than once, but largely their stories are independent. Eventually there is a huge and exciting confrontation in the Valley of Death with a thick and rather convincing quicksand pool at the bottom. It becomes something like a Western shootout at this point, something Mann became an expert at, but the movie as a whole has a unique feel to it, neither Western nor noir. Yes, it involves crime, guns, deception, and lots of night stuff (terrific is an understatement), but the underlying tone is to undo a crime syndicate on the border, and to root for the two heroes who are working for a cause (a very un-noir thing to do).A terrific full review of the movie is at bighousefilm.com (click on reviews), in particular going into the director and cinematographer, and the overall mood of the film. Certainly this was my initial attraction, for both Mann in all his ominous but realistic violence and Alton with his deep focus shadow photography are favorites of mine. There isn't a dull moment in this film just in visual terms. If you watch with your eyes, and see great moving camera, vivid dark night stuff, and some sudden changes of focus (like when the two men are in the field at night toward the end and are suddenly up close in the camera, no cutting, just a fast running to the lens an following with the lens). It's really masterful.But equally important for those who are curious about context and content beyond the art of it all is the Wikipedia entry on the Bracero program, a collaboration between the US and Mexican governments begun in the 1940s to control legal migrant workers. The need for lots of Mexican labor was pressing when millions of US men joined the army in 1942, and after the war there was pressure to keep the program going. In a way, this movie is pure propaganda to support its continuation, and it did get renewed time and again until 1964 (which is about when Cesar Chavez and the "La Raza" movement grew huge). Naturally, agribusiness didn't like it--their claim was they wanted to pay Americans full wages, not Mexicans, but in truth (apparently) they wanted to let the illegal market expand because illegals were so cheap and required no benefits. Whatever the case, "Border Incident" helps dramatize the need for some kind of program in post-war America just to counteract the bad guys running illegals over the border, to everyone's peril.Speaking of which, the bad guy in charge is played to perfection by Howard Da Silva (who is not Hispanic, nor Portuguese, but Jewish American from Ohio). His whole cadre of greedy ranchers in the desert is convincing and a thrill, cinematically. There is only a glimpse of a female in the whole movie, and yet there is tenderness at times, especially among the braceros themselves. In a way there is something of the feel of "They Live by Night" here, with the layering of plots and types of people together in the dark desert, shot in the same year. But ultimately this is a far more masculine movie, filled with action and power plays and terrific energy.

Provided you can ignore the plot holes here and there in the film, then this is an enjoyable and exciting film. While I noticed that now this film is being marketed in a Film Noir multi-pack by MGM, I really don't think I'd consider this film Noir. It does have many aspects of this, but a story about illegal Mexican migrant workers and the scum who traffic in them is hardly the stuff of Noir, though there is some gritty action and violence that is definitely influenced by this style film.The movie stars George Murphy and Ricardo Montalban. While Murphy never became a huge star, he was pretty good in this movie. However, for Montalban who only occasionally got a chance to act in films that were non-musicals, it was a very welcome role.The film itself is a fairly entertaining and straight forward tale about some scum who smuggle illegal immigrants into America and then use them as slave labor or even kill them when it's no longer convenient to keep them! Because of their brutality, a joint Mexican and American task force is created to infiltrate. Despite the complexity and evil of this gang, two agents (Murphy and Montalban) are sent in with no real backup! And, once Montalban begins his journey into the US an a supposed illegal, Murphy's tailing techniques are incredibly shabby and so he's naturally caught but manages to escape.The rest of the film concerns Montalban as well as a later infiltration by Murphy when he poses as a man who has stolen a large supply of legal identity cards that he attempts to sell to the scum running the gang from the American side of the border. Some of the film is excellent, as Charles McGraw and Howard Da Silva make great heavies (particularly McGraw) and what occurs with Murphy once he's in the gang was quite a surprise. Also, like Noir the film is unflinching and brutal. But unfortunately, several times throughout the film the heroes and their forces didn't seem all that bright and at times the only thing that saved them was the sloppiness of the criminals! Additionally, the narration (particularly at the end) is very heavy-handed and hokey. This isn't a great film but it is exciting and worth a look.PS---While George Murphy wasn't the greatest actor that ever lived and this film doesn't change my opinion of this. However, try reading him IMDb biography--it really is fascinating and has many parallels to Ronald Reagan's.