Borderline (1950 film)

Borderline
Borderline
Directed by	William A. Seiter
Written by	Devery Freeman
Produced by	Milton H. Bren
Starring	Fred MacMurray; Claire Trevor
Cinematography	Lucien Andriot
Edited by	Harry Keller
Music by	Hans J. Salter
Color process	Black and white
Production; companies	Milton H. Bren; and William A. Seiter Productions; Borderline Pictures Corporation
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	March 1, 1950 (United States);
Running time	88 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$775,000

Borderline is a 1950 American crime film noir directed by William A. Seiter and starring Fred MacMurray and Claire Trevor. It was filmed from late May to early July 1949 at Republic Studios.^[2]

Plot

Pete Ritchie (Raymond Burr) runs a narcotics smuggling operation to the US from Mexico, which the Los Angeles Police Department and the US federal government have unsuccessfully tried to stop. Because of Ritchie's careful operating procedures, US authorities haven't even been able to find out the identities of his sources or customers and are desperate for a breakthrough. As a last resort, Madeleine Haley (Claire Trevor), an LAPD officer and former OSS operative, is sent undercover to Mexico to charm her way into Ritchie's confidence.

Once there, Haley manages to establish contact with Ritchie's gang, but is kidnapped by Johnny Macklin (Fred MacMurray), a federal agent posing as a hoodlum working for a rival of Ritchie's and who also steals a load of Ritchie's narcotics. Haley is unaware that he is also undercover. She joins Macklin on a smuggling trip to maintain her cover and nab Macklin and the ring, all while Ritchie is in hot pursuit.

Cast

Character names are not indicated in on-screen cast credits

Actor	Role
Fred MacMurray	Johnny McEvoy, posing as Johnny Macklin
Claire Trevor	Madeleine Haley, posing as Gladys LaRue
Raymond Burr	Pete Ritchie
Jose Torvay	Miguel
Morris Ankrum	Bill Whittaker
Roy Roberts	Harvey Gumbin
Don Diamond	Deusik
Nacho Galindo	Porfirio
Pepe Hern	Pablo
Grazia Narciso	Porfirio's Wife
Clifton Young	Suspect questioned by Whittaker
Charles Lane	Peterson, customs officer
Johnny Indrisano	Gumbin's henchman
Chrispin Martin	Pepi, hotel clerk

Production

The film was based on a story by Norman Krasna. The budget was kept down by the key creatives deferring their pay.^[1]

Evaluation in film guides

Steven H. Scheuer's TV Movie Almanac & Ratings 1958 & 1959 gives Borderline a "Fair" rating of 2 stars (out of 4), summarizing its plot as "[A] policewoman is sent to get the goods on dope smugglers working from Los Angeles to Mexico" with the evaluation, "[U]ncertain melodrama wavers between seriousness and farce, is successful at neither". 35 years later, in the 1993–1994 edition, the plot was revised to "[A] policewoman goes undercover as a chorus girl to crack a ring of drug smugglers".

Leonard Maltin's TV Movies & Video Guide (1989 edition) slightly raises the rating to 2½ stars (out of 4) and concludes that "Trevor and MacMurray work well together as law enforcers each tracking down dope smugglers on Mexican border, neither knowing the other isn't a crook". By the time of the third edition (2015) of Maltin's Classic Movie Guide, the rating had been lowered to the Scheuer level of 2 and the write-up changed to "[O]dd thriller-comedy in which L.A. cop Trevor attempts to gather evidence against wily drug smuggler Burr while mixing with tough guy MacMurray in Mexico. Starts out promisingly, but soon bogs down in silliness. Burr makes a vivid villain."

References

^ ^a ^b Hollywood Digest: New York Times 19 June 1949: X5.
^ "Home". aficatalog.afi.com. Retrieved Aug 9, 2022.

External links

Media related to Borderline (1950 film) at Wikimedia Commons
Borderline at IMDb
Borderline is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive
Borderline at AllMovie
Borderline at the TCM Movie Database
Borderline at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films

[new-1] Hollywood Digest: New York Times 19 June 1949: X5.

[2] "Home". aficatalog.afi.com. Retrieved Aug 9, 2022.

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