Bordertown

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Bordertown

1935

1h 30m

Crime

Drama

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100%

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8 Reviews

41%

Popcornmeter

50+ Ratings

After the L.A. judicial system disbars him following an angry outburst, recent law-school graduate Johnny Ramirez (Paul Muni) finds a job at a small casino south of the border. When Johnny's creative ideas help transform the failing casino into a high-class operation, the owner (Eugene Pallette) makes him the co-owner. But the owner's obsessive wife, Marie (Bette Davis), falls in love with Johnny, causing his life to spiral into a snare of jealousy, deceit and murder.

Tom Milne

Time Out

Beautifully shot by Tony Gaudio, well acted, grippingly directed, the film makes acutely acerbic points about privilege and prejudice; but typically of Warners in its social conscience mode, settles in the end for the status quo.

Sep 20, 2019

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Andre Sennwald

New York Times

"Bordertown" otherwise manages to impale the spectator's attention before the picturesque and somewhat hysterical materials of the story.

Sep 16, 2019

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Variety Staff

Variety

Finish is phoney, but it can't hurt the previous good work. Casting throughout the film, which is also well written [from a novel by Carrol Graham] and paced, is exceptionally good.

Sep 16, 2019

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E. de S. Melcher

Washington Star

[Muni's] performance, on the whole, is a typical Muni performance -- being vigorous, simple, unaffected and believable. He is one of those rare actors whose talents don't seem to be thrown pell-mell into the very teeth of the camera.

Sep 20, 2019

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Aurelio Pego

Cine-Mundial

If you can forget some of the details (like Soledad Jiménez being the only authentic Hispanic person in the film), you will leave this film satisfied. [Full Review in Spanish]

Sep 20, 2019

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Ann Ross

Maclean's Magazine

The role of Johnny is one of those tense, slightly overwrought characterizations in which Paul Muni excels.

Aug 6, 2019

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Steve D

Not a lot here for the actors but entertaining enough.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/05/24

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Audience Member

J. Lo and Antonio Banderas had great chemistry in this movie as time-traveling actors who movie-bomb some stodgy studio-era dram-com.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

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Audience Member

Basically the same as (the original) Scarface, but starring Paul Muni as a Mexican instead of an Italian. I guess it was probably progressive or anti-racist for its time. Certainly the rich, respectable, bourgeois, WASP characters are the most despicable. But it's all over the place, it's not coherent enough, not least in its sympathy (or condescension?) for rather crudely-portrayed Mexicans.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/24/23

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Audience Member

another romantic triangle pic

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

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Audience Member

Smoldering Anger Against Racism--Follow-up to Bondage!!

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

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Audience Member

Very irritating drama in which Paul Muni graduates from an alleged school and become a-way-in-over-his-head lawyer, only to impress his mother. He fails to do so miserably (like this film in terms of convincing the viewer for it to be believable) and looks for other work, of which a criminal (Eugene Pallette) hires him to be his secretary, where he gets involved with him, and his wife (Bette Davis). Performances by other cast members are overshadowed by Muni's hammy, inconsistent (especially in terms of Mexican accent, which sounds Italian and American at times) contribution to this deservedly forgotten movie. Annoying, pretty predictable, and once again, Muni ruins the whole the movie. One of Davis' worst as well.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/18/23

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Archie Mayo

Director

Paul Muni

Johnny Ramirez

Bette Davis

Mrs. Marie Roark

Margaret Lindsay

Dale Elwell

Eugene Pallette

Charles "Charlie" Roark

Soledad Jiminez

Mrs. Ramirez

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Synopsis

After the L.A. judicial system disbars him following an angry outburst, recent law-school graduate Johnny Ramirez (Paul Muni) finds a job at a small casino south of the border. When Johnny's creative ideas help transform the failing casino into a high-class operation, the owner (Eugene Pallette) makes him the co-owner. But the owner's obsessive wife, Marie (Bette Davis), falls in love with Johnny, causing his life to spiral into a snare of jealousy, deceit and murder.

Director: Archie Mayo
Producer: Robert Lord
Screenwriter: Laird Doyle, Wallace Smith
Production Co: Warner Brothers/Seven Arts
Genre: Crime, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (DVD): Aug 4, 2009
Runtime: 1h 30m