Tedfoldol everything you have heard about this movie is true.

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

mark.waltz What starts off as your standard film noir with a nicely set up plot line ends up with two much comedy that takes the story nowhere. It's all about federal investigator Claire Trevor showing up in the Mexican outback to get the goods on drug lord Raymond Burr and ending up on the run with fellow agent Fred MacMurray whom she has no idea is there for the same reason. He catches her in Burr's motel room, and she overhears him making some sort of deal with Burr, so their lines are more than just a little crossed. Somehow they end up together on the road wanted by the Mexican police, and it's way too obvious where this plot line is going. Fresh from an Oscar win, Trevor is tough, independent and self assured; he's less defined, being, well...Fred MacMurray. In his few scenes, Burr gets to reveal a lot more than MacMurray does. Typical silly circumstances involving native Mexicans shows them either far too happy go lucky, or overly suspicious (a heavyset nagging wife) or stereotypically drunk. This isn't bad, but it's so close in plot to "The Big Steal" that I'm surprised that RKO didn't sue Universal. The Mexican actors take it all in stride, and way down the line, Charles Lane pops up in a bit, making you ask for the hundredth time, "Wow! Is he in everything?"

Man99204 No actress played "Cheap Broad" better than Claire Trevor. She is the high point in this film. In this film she is a high class dame pretending to be a "cheap Broad", and she manages to do with with little to no help from the script. Fred MacMurray plays a character who is both a romantic lead, and an apparent bad guy. His character is radically different from the character he played on "my Three Sons".Raymond Burr plays a very convincing villain. His character is also very different from the character he played on "Perry Mason".The weak point in this film is "Mexico", or at least Hollywood's concept of Mexico in 1950. The location shots are actually filmed in the Greater Los Angeles area - in areas which look nothing at all like Baja California.This film also is very contrary in its portrayal of Latino characters - especially Latinas. Many of the characters are not people but rather cartoon-ish characters.

dougdoepke Whatever the movie makers were aiming for, the film's mediocre, at best. Policewoman Haley is sent undercover below the border to break up a narcotics smuggling ring. There she finds a hulking ringleader (Burr) and a dubious companion McEvoy (MacMurray). So how will things work out once the getaway from Burr's brutal Ritchie starts.The trouble is the movie can't blend its threads effectively. Blame a sagging script and lackluster direction, particularly the uneven pacing and poor staging (the final shootout, especially). Then too, MacMurray appears unmotivated, walking through his part in atypically wooden fashion. He must have sensed something. Also telling is that Trevor's husband, millionaire Donald Bren, produced the project. At this point, Trevor's turned 40 and is apparently looking for a change of pace with a non-hardboiled role. Nonetheless, her rather cutesy approach never really registers as a policewoman. Ironically, that sort of role would ordinarily be a piece of cake for her tough-cookie persona. On the other hand, Burr really impresses as the hulking gangster. Prior to the Perry Mason gig, he made great movie heavies in more ways than one. Too bad he's not better used here.What I remember most, however, is the loony cabaret scene, when Haley steps out of the inept chorus line to entice Ritchie. For a moment I expected the Three Stooges to join in. Yes, it's that goofy. Anyway, in my little book the movie amounts to an unfortunate waste of a fine cast. Fortunately, both leads would go on to better things.

Terrell-4 Well, we have ballet noir (The Car Man (Matthew Bourne)), family values noir (Home Sweet Homicide), even "Oh, come on, that's not noir" noir (The Third Man - Criterion Collection (2- Disc Edition)). Why not easy-going romantic comedy noir? Borderline, with Claire Trevor and Fred MacMurray, fills a noir niche no one seems to have noticed was empty. And not badly, either. Pete Ritchie (Raymond Burr) is a shrewd, ruthless drug dealer. The Feds want him, but Ritchie can spot a Fed agent at ten yards. He's holed up in a dusty Mexican town where he sends drug shipments into the States using innocent tourists as well as paid mules. Ritchie's smart but he's a sucker for dames. That's where Madeleine Haley (Claire Trevor) comes in. She's an L.A. cop and, as she points out to the Feds, a female. In short order, Gladys LaRue arrives in this Mexican town and gets a job singing and dancing (badly) in a sleazy cantina that Ritchie, in a white suit, frequents. Just when she starts making progress with Ritchie in his room, Johnny Macklin, a tough guy for hire, bursts in with a gun in his hand and a plan in his head. He's been hired by another gangster to hijack one of Ritchie's drug shipments. Wait a minute...isn't that Fred MacMurray? Then we realize -- this is no spoiler -- that there are two U.S. agents working to bag Ritchie, and neither knows about the other. It's not long before the two of them are on the road headed for the U. S, staying overnight -- coyly, of course -- in a sleazy hotel. They're toting the drug shipment Ritchie's gangster competitor assigned them, as well as a suspicious music box, a fruitcake and a parrot in a big cage. Soon there's cold cream on Gladys' face and everything from a container for fingerprint power to a camera in Macklin's coat pockets. When one goes to the lobby, the other whips out a camera to take secret photos. When one goes down the hall for a bath, the other...whips out a camera to take secret photos. And then Ritchie and his goons show up and a dangerous race, complete with cheery Mexican music and wise cracks, gets underway. Corpses are left in the dust with a tip of the sombrero to siesta time. Robert Mitchum and Jane Greer never had something like this to deal with. There may be guns and gunzels, as well as too much noir drama at the end, but Borderline quickly becomes an easy-going romantic chase comedy with drugs, death and Raymond Burr thrown in. Most importantly, the movie has two attractive leads. Listening to Trevor and MacMurray, still unaware of who they really are, trade stories about how they got started in the crime business does credit to their ability to keep straight faces. Borderline is a pleasant movie, even if at times it's not sure just what kind of noir it is. It may not be an A production but it's considerably better than a programmer. As much as MacMurray and Trevor work well together, Claire Trevor steals the show.