On DVD from Warner Archives 8/17/10
A Lady Without Passport was released on DVD as part of the Warner Archives series on August 17, 2010. Long awaited and expected. A very good film awaiting rediscovery. Check it out at WBshop.com.
shareI had to remark on the poor two star review of this hidden gem. It looks like a lot of this film was done in Mexico and the visuals of the period make up for any weakness in acting. Plus overhead shots of action on a river in real time.
If there are more Noirs like these I'll check back for any more titles.
One of the best ones was Crime Wave with Sterling Hayden. The commentary on that dvd is excellent.
A Lady Without Passport was shot on location in Cuba, where it was set, not in Mexico. (Except for the usual studio interiors.) That's one of the things that makes this movie so interesting -- it was filmed in Cuba nine years before Castro took over, offering a look at the island at the start of its final, pre-Revolutionary decade. Hedy Lamarr was rarely more gorgeous. Illegal immigration was an issue even in 1950. Plus dig Steven Hill -- 40 years later the D.A. on Law & Order -- as a young, dark-haired immigration officer in the film's later scenes.
In a similar vein, the MGM/UA MOD series has just issued a 1957 film called The Big Boodle, a late noir starring Errol Flynn, which was also shot in Cuba -- in fact, entirely on location, including the interiors. This was less than two years before the Castro takeover, and so even more interesting, from that perspective at least.