IMDb RATING
7.3/10
2.5K
YOUR RATING
Stopped in Mexico by U.S. Immigration, Georges Iscovescu hopes to get into the country by marrying a citizen.Stopped in Mexico by U.S. Immigration, Georges Iscovescu hopes to get into the country by marrying a citizen.Stopped in Mexico by U.S. Immigration, Georges Iscovescu hopes to get into the country by marrying a citizen.
IMDb RATING
7.3/10
2.5K
YOUR RATING
- Director
- Writers
- Charles Brackett
- Billy Wilder
- Ketti Frings(story "Memo to a Movie Producer")
- Stars
Top credits
- Director
- Writers
- Charles Brackett
- Billy Wilder
- Ketti Frings(story "Memo to a Movie Producer")
- Stars
- Nominated for 6 Oscars
- 1 win & 7 nominations total
- Director
- Writers
- Charles Brackett
- Billy Wilder
- Ketti Frings(story "Memo to a Movie Producer")
- All cast & crew
- See more cast details at IMDbPro
Storyline
Romanian gigolo Georges Iscovescu is trying to get into the United States to become a citizen, it the land of opportunity even in his line of work. Because of the visa requirement, he instead travels to Tijuana, Mexico to cross into the States via the land border, not realizing that this situation has its own obstacles, namely the quota system per country, and Romanians have up to an eight year wait. In joining the queue in Tijuana, he ends up at the Hotel Esperanza, which houses many of those in his similar situation, some of those others who have their own story in trying to become American citizens. In running into an old colleague he met in Europe, the former Polish-Australian Anita Dixon now divorced US citizen Mrs. Shaughnessy - she a female version of him - he decides to do what she did to become a US citizen: get married to an American, Mr. Shaughnessy whom she quickly divorced after getting her citizenship. After a few missteps in finding an American to marry, Georges sets his sights on schoolteacher Emmy Brown, a woman naive in the affairs of the heart, she in Mexico with her class on a field trip. What happens between Georges and Emmy is affected by: the presence of Mr. Hammock, a US immigration inspector who is trying to clamp down on marriages of convenience, which are illegal in terms of gaining US citizenship; the presence of Mrs. Shaughnessy, who will do whatever is required to ply her trade with him, the two of them together whom she sees as the perfect match in being the same; and Georges' own ideas of what best to with Emmy. —Huggo
- Taglines
- Three great stars in the story of love...coldly conceived from a man's need, and a woman's desire! (print ad - Lubbock Morning Avalanche - Midway Theatre - Lubbock, Texas - June 14, 1944)
- Genres
- Certificate
- Passed
- Parents guide
Did you know
- TriviaThe original script included an early scene where Charles Boyer talks to a cockroach in his room. Boyer dismissed the scene as idiotic and convinced director Mitchell Leisen to delete it; screenwriters Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett were so incensed at Leisen for giving in, they resolved to direct and produce their own movies from then on.
- GoofsWhen Anita is sitting on Georges' lap at the typewriter, a moving shadow of the boom microphone can be seen in the mirror behind them.
- Quotes
Anita Dixon: All those years with all the others, I've shut my eyes and thought of you.
- Alternate versionsReleased prints for the Latin American markets included on-screen credits for technical advisers Padre Canseco, Ernesto A. Romero, and assistant director Francisco Alonso.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Discovering Film: Olivia de Havilland (2015)
- SoundtracksLa Marseillaise
(1792) (uncredited)
Music by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle
Played by the band during the celebration near the end
Top review
Send these ,the homeless,tempest-tost to me/I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
How can you be French and not love this film? First the lead is French;and in a small supporting part,there is Victor Francen,one of Julien Duvivier's ("La Fin Du Jour ",1939) and Abel Gance's ("J'accuse" 1918 and 1937) favorite actors.Plus "La Marseillaise " in the final sequences.Plus Olivia De Havilland who has been living in Paris for years.Except for Bertrand Tavernier,most of FRench critics do not speak highly of Mitchell Leisen's overlooked gem.
This is the kind of superior melodrama I love.Olivia De Havilland is one of the greatest actresses of all time,one of those who never think twice when it comes to playing demeaning parts.She is so moving,so tender and so endearing that beauty Paulette Goddard almost leaves me indifferent.And I wonder why Boyer...
The very structure of the film is highly original,being a long flashback,the hero telling his story (perhaps too much voice over) to a director to earn money (but we will know why in the last minutes )because he thinks all his trials can make a great film!Truth can be stranger than fiction cause he is in a film himself! The subject of the movie is still topical today when you see so many people leaving their country for the wealthy ones (not only America:in France ,Russians and others are actually fighting to get French citizenship).For that matter,one of the peaks is when Victor Francen declaims Emma Lazarus's poem which is graven on a tablet within the pedestal on which the Statue of Liberty stands.There are subplots and Mitchell Leisen's talent manages to make them as interesting as the three leads .You may remember the lady who wants his baby to be an American and the way she makes her dream come true,maybe more than Boyer/Havilland's honeymoon.
A honeymoon that takes them to an old Mexican village where they go to mass,with a candle in their hand.A scene that recalls Murnau's "daybreak" .
Emmy (De Havilland) is a woman who has never known love.She really wants to hold back the dawn ,to make her dream longer than the night.She gave all she had and she 's so altruistic she even returns good for evil.When she realizes that she's through with her pursuit of happiness,she simply puts her glasses.
I had seen Leisen's film when I was still a child.I saw it last night.With the same pleasure.
This is the kind of superior melodrama I love.Olivia De Havilland is one of the greatest actresses of all time,one of those who never think twice when it comes to playing demeaning parts.She is so moving,so tender and so endearing that beauty Paulette Goddard almost leaves me indifferent.And I wonder why Boyer...
The very structure of the film is highly original,being a long flashback,the hero telling his story (perhaps too much voice over) to a director to earn money (but we will know why in the last minutes )because he thinks all his trials can make a great film!Truth can be stranger than fiction cause he is in a film himself! The subject of the movie is still topical today when you see so many people leaving their country for the wealthy ones (not only America:in France ,Russians and others are actually fighting to get French citizenship).For that matter,one of the peaks is when Victor Francen declaims Emma Lazarus's poem which is graven on a tablet within the pedestal on which the Statue of Liberty stands.There are subplots and Mitchell Leisen's talent manages to make them as interesting as the three leads .You may remember the lady who wants his baby to be an American and the way she makes her dream come true,maybe more than Boyer/Havilland's honeymoon.
A honeymoon that takes them to an old Mexican village where they go to mass,with a candle in their hand.A scene that recalls Murnau's "daybreak" .
Emmy (De Havilland) is a woman who has never known love.She really wants to hold back the dawn ,to make her dream longer than the night.She gave all she had and she 's so altruistic she even returns good for evil.When she realizes that she's through with her pursuit of happiness,she simply puts her glasses.
I had seen Leisen's film when I was still a child.I saw it last night.With the same pleasure.
helpful•331
- dbdumonteil
- Jan 18, 2007
Details
- Runtime1 hour 56 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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