Bordertown

Plot synopsis:
The opening titles explain that American corporations are using the North American Free Trade Agreement by opening large maquiladoras right across the United States–Mexico border. The maquiladoras hire mostly Mexican women to work long hours for little money in order to produce mass quantity products.
Lauren Adrian (Jennifer Lopez), an impassioned American news reporter for the "Chicago Sentinel" wants to be assigned to the Iraq front-lines to cover the war. Instead, her editor George Morgan (Martin Sheen) assigns her to investigate a series of slayings involving young maquiladora factory women in a Mexican bordertown.
Worker Eva (Maya Zapata), originally from the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, takes a bus to go back to her shanty-town home after work. After a while she is the last passenger still in the bus. The driver asks her if she minds if he goes to a gas station to fill up, and Eva agrees. However, he takes her to a remote place and assaults and rapes her, together with another man, who then tries to strangle her. The two men, believing she's dead, bury her alive. With the little energy she has left, Eva escapes.
Adrian heads to Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, on the U.S.–Mexico border to investigate the murders, hoping that if she does well she will be promoted by Morgan to be a foreign correspondent. In Juárez, Adrian meets up with Diaz (Antonio Banderas), whom she had been working with six years before, and who is now the editor for the local newspaper "El Sol de Juárez". She also meets Eva.
The three try to find the two killers and have them prosecuted. For this purpose she starts working in the factory, in order to act as bait on the bus ride. The driver tries to assault her in the same way he did Eva, and although police assistance has been arranged, they are at the wrong place. She manages to escape her attacker. Later Diaz gets shot and killed in a drive-by shooting. Eva changes her mind and does not want to testify any more for fear of revenge, and tries to flee to the U.S., together with others in the trunk of a car. She gets caught and is sent back. Adrian convinces her to testify after all. For political reasons the Chicago Sentinel refuses to publish Adrian's story. Adrian quits and becomes the editor for El Sol de Juárez.

Tags: insanity, murder

Review:
The idea of the poor Mexican immigrant that wants to better himself, only to see people step all over him, is at the center of this tale.Juan Ramirez, the young lawyer, trying to defend the victim of an accident caused by the young and reckless Dale Elwell, is defeated by a much more experienced Anglo lawyer, who happened to know the system and the judge, obviously.
As a result, Juan, decides to leave L.A. to go to a border town, probably Tijuana, where he becomes a partner of Charlie Roark, a decent man who sees the potential in Johnny, as he calls himself now.What Charlie doesn't know is that he is married to a scheming woman that couldn't care less for him.
She has to get rid of her husband in order to get her hands on his money and looks to Johnny to help her, but of course, he wants nothing to do with her.Paul Muni was a great star at Warner Bros.
In minor roles, the formidable Eugene Palette plays Charlie Roark and Margaret Lindsay is seen as Dale Elwell, the rich girl that provoked the accident.This film is a rarity seldom seen these days..
Her devious upper-class lady is compellingly natural and unaffected, an interesting contrast to Muni's undiluted staginess.Anyway, the movie may be a come-down from Warner's pre-Code product, but still includes a couple of good twists (e.g. the first courtroom scene).
Although Paul Muni does go over the top a bit in Bordertown, the film remains a savage indictment of racism, concentrating as it does on the struggles of one man in a racial/ethnic minority to find a place in this society.In a biography of Paul Muni I read that he deliberately hired a Mexican driver who stayed with him for several weeks so he could copy his mannerisms and get down the proper speech pattern.
He didn't do half bad as Johnny Ramirez, the disbarred attorney who turns to the dark side.The story has Muni bright and eager to start making a living as a lawyer and please his mom Soledad Jimenez who sacrificed a lot so her kid could study law.
Broken in spirit, Muni ends up working for Eugene Palette at a road house as a bouncer.He also catches the eye of Palette's wife played by Bette Davis.
This was the second of two films in which Paul Muni played a person of Mexican background.
Paul Muni was an East European Jew, so naturally he was cast as a Hispanic Californian.Well, heck, to name just one, Leo Carrillo, a native Hispanic Californian, was cast as everything from Greek to French to Italian to Latino, and so many other "ethnic" actors played various nationalities besides their own heritages.Muni apparently wore dark makeup for this role, but it wasn't a stereotype; it was, in fact, a very sympathetic character.Bette Davis never looked lovelier.
For years, I have tried to spread my conspiracy theory that she was not made up, but made down, that she was, in fact, a very lovely lady and the Westmore family apparently had it in for her and put the make-up on in such a way that her looks were coarsened, and she was aged long before her time.She was such a great actress that her looks didn't matter, but she was very attractive and I find it a shame she wasn't allowed to show her natural beauty.The female, though, who stole this movie, both in looks and in animated characterization, was Margaret Lindsay.
PAUL MUNI with dark make-up and an Hispanic accent is a hot-blooded Mexican lawyer who turns to a different sort of life when his career as a lawyer leads nowhere.
On the sidelines watching him is BETTE DAVIS, in one of her early femme fatale roles, a bleached blonde whose advances toward Muni are promptly rebuffed.A sub-plot involving Muni's romance with a society girl (MARGARET LINDSEY) is really rather predictable, especially when she flirts with him from the start and then turns on him when he becomes serious, flinging words at him like "savage" and "brute" and telling him to stay with "his own tribe." The script resolves this ill-fated affair in an abrupt manner before the fade-out.The highlight of the drama is Bette Davis turning on Muni too, on the stand, declaring that he conspired with her to kill her husband, when in fact she is the guilty one.
She goes to pieces on the stand, allowing us a Bette Davis moment that was an indication of the kind of actress she was on the verge of becoming.Frankly, this whole story bears a strong relationship to another tale Warners produced in '41 with Ida Lupino as the stressed out woman filled with guilt over the murder of her husband.
In fact, the whole picture was smoother and produced with more polish than this similar version using some of the same story elements.Summing up: Intense drama suffers from Muni's overacting as the Mexican lawyer and a script that doesn't develop the wife's character sufficiently to lead to her mental breakdown.
"Bordertown" is the story of a Mexican attorney, Johnny Ramirez, and his fight to make something of himself and realize the American dream.
Johnny has also come to the attention of Marie Roark (Bette Davis), the restless wife of the boss, and she throws herself at him.
Marie kills her husband, and when he rejects her again, she tells the police that Johnny killed Roark.Paul Muni was an excellent actor whose style of acting is perhaps dated by today's standards.
In Los Angeles, poor Mexican-American mechanic Paul Muni (as Johnny Ramirez) studies hard to become a lawyer.
Disbarred, and carrying a chip on his shoulder, Muni goes to work as strong-arm manager for gravelly-voiced Eugene Palette (as Charlie Roark) in a Mexican "Bordertown".
However, Muni must fend off bosomy blonde bombshell Bette Davis (as Marie), Mr. Palette' s trophy wife.
Muni prefers pretty socialite Margaret Lindsay (as Dale Elwell)...Eventually, Muni finds himself on the wrong side of the law...The main problem with "Bordertown" is that the message is to stay in your own "place," and with your own "class" of people.
Both would end the year with better roles, and "Academy Award" winning performances.***** Bordertown (1/23/35) Archie Mayo ~ Paul Muni, Bette Davis, Margaret Lindsay, Eugene Palette.
"Bordertown" features a far more convincing performance from Paul Muni, who manages to curtail his usual theatrical approach to film acting.
Paul Muni plays a newly qualified lawyer who decides to make a career for himself near the Mexican border after some problems earlier on in the film.
The second half of "Bordertown" was remade by "Warner Bros" for the 1940 film, "They Drive By Night." It is a coin toss as to who is more fiery and feisty out of Bette Davis and Ida Lupino in the same role.
Young Mexican-American lawyer Johnny Ramirez (Paul Muni) is disbarred after punching out a lawyer who beat him in court!
There Johnny falls for a stuck-up socialite (Margaret Lindsay) while he becomes the object of infatuation for the boss' crazy wife (Bette Davis).Good WB drama with broad but enjoyable performances from Muni and Davis.
In Bordertown, Paul Muni plays a Mexican who gets his United States citizenship and tries to build a new life for himself.
. .Paul Muni fans can rent this movie for another great performance, but if you're looking for a solid Bette Davis performance, this isn't it.
BORDERTOWN (Warner Brothers, 1935), directed by Archie Mayo, stars Paul Muni in one of his many ethnic characterizations for which he is famous.
As much as BORDERTOWN virtually belongs to Muni during its entire 90 minutes, the movie overall is noted more as a Bette Davis film shortly before her achieving super stardom by 1937.
Johnny Farada Ramirez (Paul Muni), is a young Hispanic man living with his people in the Mexican quarter of Los Angeles, California.
After leaving the Café La Paloma with her escort and lawyer friend, Brook Mandigan (Gavin Gordon), socialite Dale Elwell (Margaret Lindsay) drives off in high speed down the road, crashing into the truck driven by Johnny's poor friend, Miguel Diego (Arthur Stone).
A year later, the once down-and-out Johnny Ramirez has now risen from ballroom bouncer to adviser and partner to Charlie Roark (Eugene Pallette), owner of a gambling casino, The Silver Slipper.
Knowing his full worth, Johnny wants and gets his 25 percent interest in Roark's business, thanks to Roark's young and attractive wife, Marie (Bette Davis), who happens to be much more interested in Johnny than her middle-aged, fat businessman husband.
Raft assumes the Muni part as the ambitious trucker while Alan Hale plays the Pallette part of boss and business partner, but it's Ida Lupino who comes off best reprising Davis' impulsive Marie.
For BORDERTOWN, Davis shows her early ability to become a good dramatic actress, especially during the courtroom scene where her method of going insane is different and better constructed than Lupino's.
Though the role of the ambitious Mexican Johnny could have been played by a Hispanic-born actor as Gilbert Roland for example, it's the better known Paul Muni, in darker hairstyle and Spanish accent, who becomes more Mexican by being as opposed to playing a Mexican.
Although the film may occur dated in many respects, the protagonist Johnny Ramirez (played by Paul Muni beautifully fitting to the role) may still have much to offer to a modern viewer.
He seems to be quite a likable character but nobody is his friend on the subject of money.Johnny born in a Mexican quarter of Los Angeles in a very traditional environment (we actually do not have any mention of his father) becomes an attorney at law with a belief that all he needs is strength and a pair of shoes for successful work.
Having overcome much trouble, his final decision may deservedly disappoint viewers...BORDERTOWN is one of the very few films of the old Hollywood where there is no highlight of particular stars.PAUL MUNI does a great job in the role highlighting the character's spontaneous youthful attitude, unrestrained ambition and 'savage' (as labeled by Dale Elwell) manners.
Former crook Juan 'Johnny' Ramirez (Paul Muni) manages to work himself out of his Hispanic slum and become a lawyer.
Encouraged by his mother, he sets up his own office and faces his first court case after wealthy socialite Dale Elwell (Margaret Lindsay) crashes her car into the cart of one of Johnny's poor neighbourhood friends.
But Roarke's bored wife Marie (Bette Davis) has other ideas and sets her sights on running her own club, and seducing Johnny to her cause.This Warner Brothers vehicle for star Paul Muni uses racial stereotypes - of which would be highly condemned nowadays - to portray a damning indictment of the American system and the idea of 'The American Dream'.
Paul Muni plays a Mexican (!!) lawyer trying to make it in law in the Mexican part of LA, but loses his first case badly, not because of his mishandling of the law , but also, as the judge states, he's got that Mexican savage blood in him!
The manager's wife (played by Bette Davis) can't stop making goo-goo eyes at him, even killing her husband to get her our of the way.
Paul Muni never hits a convincing or credible note playing a dirt-poor citizen of Mexico who becomes a lawyer whose affections are caught between two distinctly different women: a classy society dame (Margaret Lindsay) and the vindictive wife of a businessman (Bette Davis).
I just thought I'd mention that in case you decide to purchase it - there is no other way to own it.This film is not an introduction to Bette Davis.
Paul Muni is the actual star as a Latino man with big dreams (Johnny Ramirez) as he finally graduates from night school with a law degree.
A disheartened Johnny wanders down to a border town where he becomes friends with Charlie Roark (Eugene Palette), and soon becomes partners with him in a casino there.
Bette Davis plays Roark's wife who secretly loves Johnny.
She thinks the only thing coming between her and Johnny is her marriage, so she leaves her drunken husband in the garage one night with the car running, making his death look like an accident to the authorities.
However, Johnny really loves a society girl, and this drives Roark's widow to even more desperate measures.Muni's last lines in the film and the apparent moral to the story will have modern audiences probably saying "What the...", but you have to remember this was made in 1935 and appreciate it for the performances..
BORDERTOWN has German-born actor Paul Muni playing Mexican, in a made-up tan and fluctuating "accent".
Anyway, the story of a Mexican lawyer who gets involved with a murderous female while having his own attraction to a patrician socialite (Lindsay) is a better than average crime-drama that would be remade less than ten years later as THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT.
Made at around the time that OF HUMAN BONDAGE had been released, Bette Davis manages to out-act Paul Muni in her portrayal of a very wicked woman with little to no scruples, but despite her manic energy on screen and the blackness of Marie Roark, she remains fairly suppressed down to the moment her character spins out of control in a key scene.
Another is Johnny Ramirez in BORDERTOWN.One can make an excuse for Muni playing a Mexican hero like Benito Juarez.
There was supposed to be similar sympathy for Ramirez, but Muni really blew it apart in the opening of the film.Johnny has just become a lawyer - and has just hung his license up.
Johnny willingly takes the case, but he is a terrible lawyer (and, to tell the truth, anyone seeing this performance would think Muni is a terrible actor - the scene in the court is the worst overacting).
But he subsequently starts working for Charlie Roarke (Eugene Palette), a jolly and good natured man who has a roadhouse with gambling.The plot is that Roarke's wife Marie (Bette Davis) meets Johnny, and falls for him (not hard - he's a romantic Mexican, and look at jolly but short, fat, and old Chalie).
(There are Spoilers) Having studied for five years to get his law degree self-confident in his ability in to practice law Johnny Ramirez, Paul Muni, gets the shock of his short professional career as a small time lawyer when he ends up belting defense lawyer Brook Manville, Gavin Gordon, on his first case.
As things turn out Charlie's scheming wife Marie, Bette Davis, sees in Johnny a meal ticket and tries to make a play for him.
The source of temptation is the alluring Bette Davis, the wife of Muni's portly boss, Eugene Palette.
Paul Muni, Bette Davis and Margaret Lindsay sizzle.
It's based on a Robert Lord story, and Henry O'Neill appears uncredited.Paul Muni plays Johnny, a poor Mexican working as a mechanic while he puts himself through law school.
As a hard worker, Johnny quickly becomes Charlie's partner, earning unwanted affections from his wife Marie (Bette Davis).
Two films that Bette Davis and Paul Muni did together evolved around Spanish heritage-this one and 1939's "Juarez."When I saw this film, I began to think of "They Drive By Night," which came several years later and had Ida Lupino and Humphrey Bogard in similar roles where a spurned Lupino, who had killed her husband in the same way that Davis did in the Eugene Palette character, goes berserk when Bogart ignores her.Lupino's outburst in the court that the doors made her do it was much more effective than Davis's insanity scene.Nonetheless, we have an excellent film here with the element of class identity and racism added to the mix.Muni as Johnny Ramirez is perfect.
Ramirez finds success another way, by opening a nightclub after he formed a partnership with Palette and met Palette's bored, lust filled Davis.In a supporting performance, Margaret Lindsay is effective as the high class society spoiled woman who turned the tables on attorney Ramirez in court, only to meet him some time later, when he is a success, but only to reject him again.Remember Rita Moreno's statement in "West Side Story?" Stick to your own kind, stay with your own kind.
It's a shame, though, as some story elements are quite entertaining and in some ways the film is better than its remake, THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT (1940).The film begins with Paul Muni playing a Mexican-American graduating from a tiny law school with apparently very low standards.
In fact, Davis wants him so much she kills Palette and makes it appear as if it were an accident.Muni has no idea that Davis is a murderer, but makes the most of the boss' death--building a newer and more successful casino with Davis' money.
As for Lindsay, she's just a shallow dame looking for a good time.At this point, Davis begins acting jealous and placing demands on Muni.
This court scene, frankly, was pretty bad--with Davis overacting and rolling her eyes in a scene so histrionic it made me laugh.Now, acquitted of this murder, Muni runs to Lindsay to ask her to marry him.
Paul Muni and Bette Davis overact monstrously while lacklustre studio hack Archie Mayo seems distracted and oblivious in this racially provocative film that derives its "bittersweet ending" by condoning segregationist attitudes.
Heavy handed and poorly constructed the film collapses under its own weight within the first fifteen minutes with an out of control courtroom scene that it never recovers from as Mr. Muni begins to chew up scenery by the yard hollering and howling away in an almost incoherent fashion.Johnny Ramirez is a Mexican American from the other side of the tracks who through determination and grit attains a law degree from a store front night school.
Margaret Lindsay as Muni's American Dream is cold, remote and flat.Bad as Bordertown is (and it is very) it remains an interesting indicator of the times and acceptable attitudes.