Cinema Revisited: Bordertown (1935)

Directed by Archie Mayo. Cast: Paul Muni, Bette Davis, Margaret Lindsey, Eugene Pallette, Robert Barrat, Soledad Jimenez, Hobart Cavanaugh, Gavin Gordon. Released January 23, 1935. Running time: 90 minutes.

Paul Muni is one of the truly magnificent actors of Hollywood's lauded golden age. Able to take on different accents for different characters, we fully accept the Hungarian born Jewish actor is Chinese, Polish, or, in this film's case, a Mexican American. He plays Johnny Ramirez, a struggling Mexican-born man who works hard to get a law degree. When he finally gets to try a good case, he is soundly trounced in the courtroom by an experience lawyer, and reacts volatilely, causing disbarment. Dejected, he travels to Mexico and ends up working in a seedy casino. His ideas cause the place to become a top moneymaker, so the gangster who runs it makes Johnny a partner. However, his girl starts to fall for Johnny, who himself is smitten with another woman. This conflict results in greater trouble for Johnny, until the woman unravels on the witness stand. The film concludes with Johnny returning to California to be with his people, his taste for money and power having soured.

Warner Brothers was one of the few major studios that explored the immigrant experience, and while a lot of the roles are filled by white actors, the representation is positive and endearing. Muni's scene where Johnny is overcome with emotion as his mother gives him a professional plaque for his new law office is one of the most moving scenes in the film. Johnny's belief in himself, his American idealism, is inspiring, and his inexperienced performance in the courtroom is heartbreaking. Muni's brilliance as an actor allows him to be convincing when Johnny's attitude changes and he is running the border town casino in Mexico. Now he is confident in demanding a 25% piece of the place, stating, "Nobody is my friend when it comes to money."

Bette Davis turns in one of her finest early performances as the gangster's girl who falls hard for Johnny. Muni, whose stardom allowed some level of control, wanted Carole Lombard, but when he saw Davis's work in "Of Human Bondage," he asked for her, realizing she was under contract with the same studio and it'd be easy to cast her. Her scene when she unravels in the courtroom is especially impressive. She doesn't explode into blatant histrionics, she allows her character to slowly come apart, building upon each emotion with true artistic grace. Davis herself would later recall: "It was an excellent acting part - a step in the direction of where I wanted my career to go. I wanted to be known as an actress, not necessarily a star, although that would be the frosting on the cake if it should ever come about."

The cast is rounded out by bullfrog-voiced Eugene Pallette, pretty and proper Margaret Lindsay, and ethnic actors Soledad Jimenez and Chris Pin-Martin.

"Bordertown" was one of the first films to come under scrutiny by the Production Code enforcers, causing a murder and a sexual affair to be removed from the story. Some elements of this story would be found in a later Warner Brothers movie, "They Drive By Night" (1941) featuring George Raft, Humphrey Bogart, and Ida Lupino.