Borderline (1950)

Two undercover agents infiltrate a drug-smuggling ring in Mexico, but neither is aware of the other's identity.

Director:

William A. Seiter

Writer:

Devery Freeman (story and screenplay)

Stars:

Fred MacMurray, Claire Trevor, Raymond Burr

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Fred MacMurray	...	Johnny McEvoy - aka Johnny Macklin
Claire Trevor	...	Madeleine Haley
Raymond Burr	...	Pete Ritchie
José Torvay	...	Miguel (as Jose Torvay)
Morris Ankrum	...	Bill Whittaker
Roy Roberts	...	Harvey Gumbin
Don Diamond	...	Deusik
Nacho Galindo	...	Porfirio
Pepe Hern	...	Pablo
Grazia Narciso	...	Porfirio's Wife

Storyline

Customs agents are looking for information about Pete Ritchie, who 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. 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.

---

Plot Keywords:

narcotics | public domain | drug smuggling | police interrogation | posing as husband and wife | 

---

Taglines:

Two Undercover Agents Unwittingly Stalk the Same Target.

---

Genres:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Thriller

---

Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

1 March 1950 (USA)

Also Known As:

Tráfico de muerte

Filming Locations:

Malibu, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Milton H. Bren and William A. Seiter Productions, Borderline Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The price of 125 pesos per day for Johnny's and Madeline's hotel room would equal $23.20 per day at the time, or nearly $400 in 2016.

---

Goofs

At the end of the film there is a general mêlée and a fight between Macklin and Gumbin takes place behind and below the bar. The police fire a smoke grenade into the room and as Macklin rises from behind the bar there is blood seeping from his lower left lip. As he collapses on the floor the police and Madeleine Haley rush in. She embraces and kisses Macklin him but the trace of blood has disappeared from his face.

---

Quotes

Harvey Gumbin: All dames will stay in line as long as the payoff is big enough at the end.

---

Alternate Versions

The badly edited version, released by Viking Entertainment/Burbank Video is missing the scene when the heroes discover they are both cops!

---

Connections

Featured in The World Famous Kid Detective (2014)

User Reviews

Hard to take seriously even when your drunk watching it

**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.