Border Incident
Border Incident is a 1949 film noir featuring Ricardo Montalbán, George Murphy, Howard Da Silva. Directed by Anthony Mann, the MGM production was written by John C. Higgins and George Zuckerman. The film was shot by cinematographer John Alton, who used shadows and lighting effects to involve an audience despite the fact that the film was shot on a low budget. Premise. The story concerns two agents, one Mexican (PJF) and one American, who are tasked to stop the smuggling of Mexican migrant workers across the border to California. The two agents go undercover, one as a poor  migrant. Production. The film was among a number of lower budgeted movies produced at MGM under the regime of Dore Schary. Reception. According to MGM records the film earned $580,000 in the US and Canada and $328,000 overseas resulting in a loss of $194,000. Critical response. Roger Westcombe compared the film to classic Westerns: "Yet far from a typical Western's sense of freedom, "Border Incident" shares with [director Mann's previous film noir] "T-Men" that film's inky, submerged visual quality. These are 'wide' but not 'open' spaces, as Alton's beautifully registered grey-toned  but grim visuals make the distant horizons as closed as the American border. The constant presence of vulnerable, innocent peasants adds a piquancy to "Border Incident", raising the stakes from the destiny of a mere two police agents to that of an entire underclass."