A Lady without Passport ** (1950, Hedy Lamarr, John Hodiak, James Craig, George Macready) – Classic Movie Review 8,041

A hedy brew

Joseph H Lewis’s 1950 MGM black and white thriller film A Lady without Passport starring Hedy Lamarr and John Hodiak is a heady brew, mixing romantic adventure, film noir and crime drama.

Director Joseph H Lewis’s 1950 MGM black and white thriller film A Lady without Passport starring Hedy Lamarr and John Hodiak is a heady brew, mixing romantic adventure, film noir and crime drama. It promises quite a bit and has its moments, but mostly fails to deliver.

Cuba is being used as a jumping off point for illegal entry by foreign nationals into the United States. Hedy Lamarr stars as foreign lady without a passport Marianne Lorress, a Viennese concentration camp refugee working in a nightclub, who is caught up in the plan of American secret Immigration Service Agent Peter Karczag (John Hodiak) to uncover a gang who are smuggling illegal immigrants into America. But romance between Marianne and Peter soon complicates and then finally resolves things.

Marianne (Lamarr) wants to forget intrigue in Havana, and, since there are so few thrills, so might the viewer. However, the highly esteemed cult name Lewis brings some flair, imagination and urgency to the direction – considerably more than Howard Dimsdale’s script or the performers deserve here.

Perhaps never the best of actors, Lamarr and Hodiak are not too bad individually, but they lack the chemistry to kick off many sparks. George Macready (Ballin Mundson in Gilda) is excellent as the creepy Palinov, the man running the people smuggling ring. It helps that Paul C Vogel’s noir-style black and white is atmospheric and David Raksin’s unusual score is another asset.

Also in the cast are James Craig, Steven Geray, Bruce Cowling, Nedrick Young, Steven Hill, Robert Osterloh, Charles Wagenheim, Renzo Cesana, Esther Zeitlin, Carlo Tricoli, Marta Mitrovich and Trevor Bardette.

The intelligent Lamarr can hardly have enjoyed her demeaning billing as ‘That Delilah Girl’ after her hit in the 1949 Samson and Delilah. She refused to appear unless MGM agreed to pay her $150,000.

The scenes in Cuba are shot on location there. The Florida scenes were moved from a hotel setting to the Everglades after producer Samuel Marx couldn’t find an empty hotel for filming.

It was shot from January to February 1950. Release date: August 3, 1950 (US).

Budget: $1,088,000, Box office: $1,004,00.  MGM made a loss of $444,000.

A Caribbean-style score was composed by David Raksin and conducted by Johnny Green.

A Lady without Passport (1950, Hedy Lamarr, John Hodiak).

A Lady Without Passport is directed by Joseph H Lewis, runs 74 minutes, is made by MGM, is released by MGM, is written by Cyril Hume (adaptation) and Howard Dimsdale, based on a story by Lawrence Taylor, is produced by Samuel Marx, is shot in black and white by Paul C Vogel, and is scored by David Raksin.

The cast are Hedy Lamarr as Marianne Lorress, John Hodiak as Peter Karczag, James Craig as Frank Westlake, George Macready as Palinov, Steven Geray as Frenchman, Bruce Cowling as Archer Delby James, Nedrick Young as Harry Nordell, Steven Hill as Jack, Robert Osterloh as Lt. Lannahan, Trevor Bardette as Lt. Carfagno, Charles Wagenheim as Ramon Santez, Renzo Cesana as A. Sestina, Esther Zeitlin as Beryl Sandring, Carlo Tricoli as Mr Sandring, Marta Mitrovich as Elizaveth Alonescu, Don Garner as Dmitri Matthias, Richard Crane as Navy Flyer, and Nita Bieber as Dancer.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8,041

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