A Lady Without a Passport (1950)
Directed by Joseph H. Lewis
Produced by Samuel Marx
Screenplay by Howard Dimsdale
Adapted by Cyril Hume
Story by Lawrence Taylor
Cinematography by Paul Vogel
M-G-M
(1:14) New to me - borrowed from a friend
Hedy Lamarr stars as Marianne Lorress, an Austrian concentration-camp refugee living in Cuba, waiting for an opportunity to be smuggled into the United States with the help of an illegal operation run by a man named Palinov (George Macready).
With an increase of Cuban immigrants trying to sneak into America, U.S. Immigration agent Pete Karczag (John Hodiak) is sent to Cuba, posing as a Hungarian requesting aid from Palinov. While he’s undercover, Pete falls in love with Marianne, and you can guess the rest. Or can you?
A Lady Without a Passport is clearly a Casablanca rip-off, but Lewis does a good job of making a lot out of a mostly routine script, especially with some interesting visuals, including an airplane’s crash-landing. Although Macready is always good (at being bad), Hodiak is the standout here, as is the musical score.
Next: a hit-and-run accident is just the beginning of this couple’s problems…
Photos: DVD Beaver