Guerra di sessi

I am not sure how this "film noir" turned into a romance, but this romantic is not complaining. I thought Fred MacMurray and Claire Trevor were wonderful together. I also loved the misunderstanding with each of them thinking that the other is part of a drug smuggling racket. What is particularly funny is their childhood stories that they tell each other!

This starts as the story of police woman, Madeleine Haley going undercover south of the border in Mexico in order to get information on a notorious drug smuggler. There she meets the nefarious Raymond Burr who plays Pete Ritchie. She is almost immediately embroiled in a drug run with a tough character named Johnny McEvoy (played by Fred MacMurray).

During this trip to the border, while posing as a newly married couple...these two are trying to get information out of each other. This in my opinion becomes the best part of the film.

I think this is misclassified as a film noir...I recommend this film to romantics. There is a little comedy and a nice romantic story told.

Hi, Everyone,

I bought the DVD of Borderline at the 99 Cent Store. One buck for the movie makes it low cost but also there is no menu or chapters to make it easy to find a specific place in the movie.

There are some fun moments in the film. If you are an old car buff, you will see a 1939 Buick (pushed front end first into a shallow ravine), a 1949 Mercury, an old Nash and other vintage cars and trucks and buses.

Some mistakes from the movie include at the 45 minute point, Fred MacMurray looks into his rear view mirror (39 Buick) to see a motorcycle cop who is chasing him. The only problem is there is no rear view mirror. It was common in these old movies to remove the rear view mirror at the top of the inside of the windshield so the camera could see the driver and the passengers in the car. At 76 minutes into the movie watch the 1949 Mercury as it comes toward the camera and merges with traffic. It is supposed to be a convertible with 2 people inside. This is a stock footage insert of a '49 Mercury 4 door sedan with one person inside.

Two excellent scenes to watch for include a plane landing beautifully on a beach and taxiing up to the camera (63 minutes into the film), and a scene where a dead man is in the back seat of Fred MacMurray's car. The man playing the corpse keeps his eyes wide open for what seems like a minute or longer without blinking. That is at the 44 minute spot in the movie.

The story is OK. It straddles somewhere between comedy and serious detective chase film.

A better Raymond Burr movie might be "Rear Window." Fred MacMurray was more memorable in "Double Indemnity."

Tom Willett

Borderline has the interesting premise that two government agencies have operators working the same case and neither knows anything about the other. If they did there would be no film called Borderline.

According to a recent biography of Fred MacMurray the film was produced by Claire Trevor's husband Milton Bren and MacMurray was given a piece of the film in lieu of a salary. It doesn't look like to much was spent on production values so it probably made a profit for its investors who were also its investors.

Trevor is with the LAPD and she's sent in looking for dope smuggler Raymond Burr while MacMurray is with the Feds and he's worked his way into the gang of rival smuggler Roy Roberts. Circumstance throws these two together as MacMurray takes Trevor for what she is, a wisecracking moll whom he starts to fall for. Nevertheless his duty is clear.

Borderline is not quite an easy fit between film noir and comedy which both stars have done their share of. Nevertheless MacMurray and Trevor work well together. Borderline is the kind of film Fred might have done with Carole Lombard had she lived.

Fans of this most underrated actor will like this film, Fred carried worse in his career.

Clare Trevor had decorated many films in a range of roles which commonly portrayed her as a tough broad. She was able to assure her husband, producer Milton Bren, that she was also qualified to perform in comedic parts, and the result is his bankrolling of this action-comedy hybrid: BORDERLINE, which features Fred MacMurray and Trevor as undercover narcotics operatives working for different agencies with the same target, but unaware of each other's placement. The film just misses working on both levels of drama and comedy; the scenario by veteran Hollywood light musical scriptor Devery Freeman cuts its chances, but improves during the second half. MacMurray, generally unrecognized as a cinema tough guy, shines and teams well with Trevor, who in fact does demonstrate that she can do light comedy.

Some huge names in this: Fred MacMurray, Claire Trevor, Ray Burr. Fred and the feds are trying to catch the bad guys bringing drugs over the border. Claire Trevor is a police officer who offers to help out by going undercover. but they don't know the other is undercover, the good guys! Ray Burr is the bad guy, as usual. it's a bit of a dra-medy, with some silly scenes here and there. after some drama, they get away in an airplane, and show up at the meeting place. keep an eye out for charles lane, in his usual uncredited role. has about two lines. for a while, he held the record for the most roles in films. directed by Bill Seiter. he made only a couple more films, then moved into television. this one is a light and fun caper... not too serious. comedies were a specialty of Seiter. check out the actors he worked with at wikipedia dot com! this one is good -- just when you think it's over, it goes another ten minutes. after a huge, long career as a film star, MacMurray will be Dad on My Three Sons.