- Anthony's Mann's excellent Border Incident is above all a movie with a message, namely that migrant workers who come to the United States illegally are treated terribly. They know they're breaking the law, but nothing they could ever do would merit the unfair and potentially lethal treatment they receive. The film instead makes it quite clear that those who facilitate human trafficking and the workers' illegal employers are legally and ethically responsible for these travesties. While it's great to see such a pointed criticism of illegal labor practices, it's also bracing to realize that the same issues that bothered Mann are sadly very much a part of modern America, too.
- The basic situation is as follows. Hordes of potential workers in a seedy Mexican border town gradually lose patience while waiting to be selected for legal work visas. The desperate ones, like Juan Garcia (James Mitchell), hear of a man (Sig Ruman) who can get them across the border. Assured of work and fair pay, they stow away in the back of a delivery truck, packed tightly in the hay. They finally make their way to a farm in California's Imperial Valley run by the impressively amoral Owen Parkson (Howard Da Silva). There, they work very hard and receive payment only to have it stolen in a valley ambush on the return trip. The lucky ones get back to Mexico alive, but this story doesn't have a whole lot of lucky ones.
- Investigating this shady operation is a joint team from Mexico and the United States. Mexican police detective Pablo Rodriguez (Ricardo Montalban) lands the difficult task of infiltrating the operation by posing as a migrant worker. Although his smooth hands nearly give him away, Rodriguez' quick wit is enough to get him across the border. Meanwhile, his American counterpart Jack Bearnes (George Murphy) lands the nominally safer job of trying to track Rodriguez' progress from the outside. Or rather, it would be a safe job if Parkson and his minions weren't involved. Rodriguez and Bearnes are pretty good at getting out of tough scrapes, but eventually a scrape comes along that is too tough even for them.
- Unsurprisingly, Border Incident's greatest asset is the always terrific Montalban, although Da Silva and the film's collection of talented character actors (Charles McGraw, Arnold Moss, Alfonso Bedoya, José Torvay, Jack Lambert) are nearly as impressive. Also striking is Mann's direction, particularly when capturing the film's remarkably claustrophobic settings, which range from the stifling truckbed to a narrow canyon to some choking quicksand pits. While the U.S. and Mexico still have plenty of problems with illegal workers, one thing has changed since Border Incident was made. That difference is that a modern Hollywood film would never portray a Mexican police officer as competent, honest, and noble as Pablo Rodriguez. Whether that reflects badly on Mexican police, Hollywood, or both, I really can't say.
