Bordertown(1935 film)

For other uses, seeBordertown.

Bordertown
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Archie Mayo
Screenplay by	Laird Doyle Wallace Smith
Story by	Robert Lord
Based on	Border Town 1934 novel by Carroll Graham
Produced by	Jack L. Warner Hal B. Wallis
Starring	Paul Muni Bette Davis
Cinematography	Tony Gaudio
Edited by	Thomas Richards
Music by	Bernhard Kaun
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.
Release date	January 23, 1935(1935-01-23)
Running time	90 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$369,000
Box office	$1,237,000

Bordertownis a 1935 Americandrama filmdirected byArchie Mayoand starringPaul MuniandBette Davis.The screenplay by Laird Doyle andWallace Smithis based onRobert Lord's adaptation of the 1934 novelBorder Townby Carroll Graham. The supporting cast featuresMargaret Lindsay,Eugene PalletteandRobert Barrat. Although the filmsThey Drive by Night(1940) andBlowing Wild(1953) are not specifically remakes ofBordertown,they include many of its plot elements and similar scenes.

Plot

After graduating from Pacific Night Law School in Los Angeles, feisty and ambitiousMexican AmericanJohnny Ramirez loses his first court case because he is ill-prepared. His poor, Hispanic client's truck was destroyed by careless debutante Dale Elwell. Johnny is harassed by the opposing attorney, uppercrust Brook Manville, who is defending his lover, Elwell. Johnny reacts, losing his temper and the case. Disbarred for his actions, he journeys to a small town south of the border and finds work as a bouncer, in a seedy casino owned by Charlie Roark. Johnny helps transform the dive into a first-class nightclub called the Silver Slipper that attracts an upscale crowd, and Charlie makes him a partner to reward him for his efforts.

Charlie's lonely, unhappily married wife Marie makes a play for Johnny, who resists her advances. Certain Johnny has shunned her simply because she is married, she locks her inebriated husband in the garage and leaves the car running, asphyxiating him.

Dale Elwell and her society friends, including Brook Manville, visit the club and Johnny becomes infatuated with her. A jealous Marie accuses Johnny of murdering Charlie, but when called to testify at his trial, she collapses on the witness stand, having become insane. Johnny returns to Los Angeles and proposes to Dale, who contemptuously rejects him, citing the dramatic differences in their ethnic and economic backgrounds, then is hit and killed by a car trying to get away from him. Johnny decides to sell the Silver Slipper, donate the proceeds to a law school, and settle in Los Angeles among his own people.

Cast

• Paul Munias Johnny Ramirez
• Bette Davisas Marie Roark
• Margaret Lindsayas Dale Elwell
• Eugene Palletteas Charlie Roark
• Robert Barratas Padre
• Soledad Jimenez as Mrs. Ramirez
• Hobart Cavanaughas Harry
• Gavin Gordonas Brook Manville
• William Davidsonas Dr. Carte
• Oscar Apfelas Judge Rufus Barnswell (uncredited)
• Wade Boteleras Buying Casino Man (uncredited)
• Chris-Pin Martinas José (uncredited)
• George Regasas Guillermo (uncredited)
• Arthur Treacheras Roberts (uncredited)

Production

Bordertownwas one of the first films to come under the close scrutiny of the Hays Office, which finally was enforcing theMotion Picture Production Codeintroduced in 1930 to limit content seen as controversial or salacious. In the original script, Johnny Ramirez was disbarred for committing murder and had an affair with Marie Roark, two plot elements that had to be revised before the screenplay was approved.

Leading manPaul Muniwanted eitherCarole LombardorLupe Vélezas his co-star, but after hearing the positive feedback his contract playerBette Daviswas receiving for her performance inOf Human Bondage,which was in production atRKO,studio headJack L. Warnerdecided to cast her in the role of Marie Roark."The part of Marie was an excellent acting part - a step in the direction of where I wanted my career to go", Davis later recalled. "I wanted to be known as an actress, not necessarily a star, although that would be the frosting on the cake if it should ever come about."

After murdering her husband, Marie undergoes a gradual mental deterioration, culminating in a collapse in the courtroom. Director Archie Mayo expected Davis to deliver ahistrionicperformance, but the actress, whose own sister suffered from a mental disorder, insisted a subtle portrayal of the breakdown w as more appropriate and accurate."When I firmly and sincerely believed I should play my role a certain way, I wasn't afraid to argue about it with my director", Davis remembered. "They wanted me to be a raving lunatic in the courtroom scene, pull my hair, and scream. That is the only way insanity had been played on the screen up to that time." After the film was completed, studio executives felt viewers would fail to realize Marie was insane and insisted Davis re-shoot the scene. She agreed she would do so only if preview audiences did not realize the character had descended into madness. "I was never asked to do a retake", Davis recalled.

Critical reception

Andre Sennwald ofThe New York Timescalled the film "a raw and bitingmelodramadealing with the bitterly realistic emotions "that permits Paul Muni" to scrape the nerves in the kind of taut and snarling role at which he is so consummately satisfying "and to display" his great talent for conviction and theatrical honesty. "He cited the" fine and uncommonly honest performance "of Bette Davis, who he found to be" effective and touching in pathological mazes which the cinema rarely dares to examine. "While he thought Johnny's" feeble confessional at the conclusion ofBordertownis an unconvincing and inconsistent denouement for the career of such a vigorous rebel against the established order ", he felt the film" otherwise manages to impale the spectator's attention before the picturesque and somewhat hysterical materials of the story. "

Box Office

According to Warner Bros records the film earned $891,000 domestically and $346,000 foreign.

External links

• Bordertownat theAFI Catalog of Feature Films
• BordertownatIMDb
• Bordertownat theTCM Movie Database