Here is some spectacular film noir photography by the same team (Director Anthony Mann and cinematographer John Alton) that brought you He Walked By Night, Ray Deal and T-Man. The photography is as good as anything in those movies, if not better. This is good stuff; great direction, with interesting closeups, wide-angle lenses, low-angle shots, tons of shadows and light. Instead of a big city, we had the desert as the main area. The DVD transfer is terrific, too.

All of this, to me, was more fun to watch than the actual story, although the second half of this movie is extremely tense and well done. It makes up for the first half which is a bit on the sordid side at times and a bit slow at times, but definitely film noir material meaning a feeling of dread just around each corner. The suspense gets really thick in the last 20 minutes when George Murphy is discovered by th sadistic criminals to be an undercover lawman. What happens to Murphy is memorable.

Howard da Silva and Charles MacGraw are effective as the main villains. MacGraw's distinctive voice alone makes him a film noir Hall of Famer. Murphy - known more for his light-hearted hoofer films - does a credible in here and it was interesting to see Ricardo Montalban (of TV's "Love Boat" fame) as such a young man. Those two play the good guys.

This is a tough, all-male cast with no romances or soft stuff. In a way, the atmosphere reminded me a bit of another tough noir, "The Big Combo," although the subject matter here is entirely different than any other noir I know about: immigrants crossing the border. However, unlike the real-life situation that is a major story today, this involves Mexicans crossing the border to do migrant farm work, and then getting robbed and killed by bandits on the way home. Still, the subject of "illegals" is a big part of this story and ironic to watch today in light of what's happening now.

Anyway, if you enjoy literally-dark stories, and am a fan of film noir, check this movie out.

With the death of Ricardo Montalban still fresh from a few weeks ago, I thought I'd check from my local library a DVD of one of his more dramatically compelling movies he made for his contracted studio, M-G-M. Directed by Anthony Mann just before his legendary streak of James Stewart westerns in the following decade, Border Incident has a sort of western feel as it tells the story of a couple of agents, one U.S. and one Mexican, trying to protect Mexican immigrants from being exploited and beaten to death in this country. Both Montalban and George Murphy-who's usually a song-and-dance man-are very compelling in their straight roles. As the villains, Howard Da Silva and Charles McGraw also bring their subtle creepiness to somewhat charismatic effect (well, Da Silva anyway). And James Mitchell brings his own charm as one of the migrant workers Montalban tries to help. There's also a naturalistic documentary feel in the beginning and end that make this somewhat realistic for the era which is also achieved by rare uses of the music score throughout. If you've only known Mr. Montalban as Mr. Roarke on "Fantasy Island" or as Khan on the "Star Trek" episode "Space Seed" not to mention Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, you'll probably be wonderfully surprised by his heroic role here. With that, I highly recommend Border Incident.

Border Incident is directed by Anthony Mann and adapted to screenplay by John C. Higgins from the George Zuckerman story. It stars Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy, Howard Da Silva, Charles McGraw, Arthur Hunnicutt and James Mitchell. Music is by Andre Previn and cinematography by John Alton.

The great Anthony Mann creates what is the perfect crossover movie that blends film noir style with western shadings. Mann would next go on to make the well regarded psychological westerns with James Stewart, Border Incident is the tasty meat in his noir/western sandwich.

In essence it's a remake of T-Men, only Mann and his team have shifted away from a hustle and bustle city setting to tell a story down on the sweaty American/Mexico border. We are probing into immigration issues, human smuggling and the abuse of such, Mann and his writers daring to portray the human suffering of farm workers from Mexico, lured in as slave labour, only to then be abused and used and much worse...

Having the legendary Alton on photography duties aids the downbeat thematics considerably, whilst also deftly averting attention from what is a pretty bog standard script, the low budgets never a problem where Mann and Alton were concerned. In fact, in noirville they worked it to their advantage with some striking lighting techniques and camera movements.

The pic is often vicious, sadistic even, landing violent scenes in the conscious that refuse to move until it's all over and the screen goes blank. Suspense is never far away in Border Incident, with a mostly on form cast (George Murphy is uneven as McGraw does nasty brilliantly) bringing the material to life as the dream team cloak it all in pictorial assertiveness. Not in the same league as Raw Deal, but highly recommended for reasons already stated. 8/10