Bordertown (1935)

Very well executed

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Best movie ever!

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Directed by Archie Mayo, this film was later remade, better, as They Drive By Night (1940). It's based on a Robert Lord story, and Henry O'Neill appears uncredited.Paul Muni plays Johnny, a poor Mexican working as a mechanic while he puts himself through law school. A rich socialite Dale (Margaret Lindsay) runs into his friend (Arthur Stone) Manuel's car, which becomes his first case. Johnny sues Dale in court but is ill- prepared, losing to her boyfriend Brook (Gavin Gordon). Though she offers to pay anyway, Brook stops her. So, Johnny hits him causing him to be disbarred.Johnny hits the road and finds his way to a gambling establishment run by Charlie (Eugene Palette), who hires him. As a hard worker, Johnny quickly becomes Charlie's partner, earning unwanted affections from his wife Marie (Bette Davis). Her attraction to Johnny is so great, Marie uses an automatic garage door mechanism to kill her husband with carbon monoxide one night when Charlie is drunk. She is able to convince everyone it was an accidental death. With the insurance money, Johnny builds a successful casino with silent partner Marie.But Marie isn't pleased with her and Johnny's platonic relationship, especially when Dale, with Brook in tow, shows up as a guest at their casino. When Johnny begins seeing Dale, who is merely towing with him though he fails to see it, Marie confesses the murder and its purpose. Johnny wants nothing to do with her, as he blindly pursues Dale. So, Marie tries to pin the murder of her husband on Johnny. Ms. Davis's acting ability is in full exhibition at the trial, and there is a bit of redemption concerning Lindsay's character too, as this sad parable comes to an end.

Young Mexican-American lawyer Johnny Ramirez (Paul Muni) is disbarred after punching out a lawyer who beat him in court! Embittered, he heads to Mexico where he goes to work in a border town casino. There Johnny falls for a stuck-up socialite (Margaret Lindsay) while he becomes the object of infatuation for the boss' crazy wife (Bette Davis).Good WB drama with broad but enjoyable performances from Muni and Davis. Margaret Lindsay is always lovely. Nice supporting cast includes Eugene Palette, Robert Barrat, and Samuel S. Hinds. Well-intentioned social messages seem slightly embarrassing today. And yes, the movie is politically incorrect, for those who are bothered by that. Elements of this story were later used in the superior They Drive By Night with George Raft and Humphrey Bogart. A good movie, especially for Bette Davis fans.

(There are Spoilers) Having studied for five years to get his law degree self-confident in his ability in to practice law Johnny Ramirez, Paul Muni, gets the shock of his short professional career as a small time lawyer when he ends up belting defense lawyer Brook Manville, Gavin Gordon, on his first case. Manville's client he filthy rich and beautifully bread Dale Elwell, Margaret Lindsey, was charged with drunk driving in her demolishing Johnny's friend's Manuel Deago, Arthur Stone, pick-up truck. Made to look like a fool by Manville, with his staling and double-talk tactics, Johnny realized, after clobbering the snide and condescending Manville, that law wasn't his cup of tea and checked out of town,L.A, looking for a new profession. It didn't take long for Johnny to find employment at the Silver Slipper Casino on the Mexican/US border as a bouncer and later manager of the gambling establishment.Feeling that he's worth a lot more then what his boss Charlie Roak, Eugene Palette, is paying him Johnny ends up owning 25% of the gambling joint with Charlie more then willing to give it to him. As things turn out Charlie's scheming wife Marie, Bette Davis, sees in Johnny a meal ticket and tries to make a play for him. Not falling for Marie's poor little girl, who's needs a lot of lovin', act Johnny is very keen to Marie and refuses to betray his partner Charlie in having an illicit affair with her. It may also be that Johnny wasn't all that attracted to Marie in how cheaply she handled herself as well as how unstable she was.One evening at the Silver Slipper when Charlie is dead drunk Marie drives him homes and in a flash see the golden opportunity that she's been looking for. Locking the drunk and unconscious Charlie in the garage Marie leaves the motor running which results in,from carbon monoxide poisoning, Charlie's untimely death but in reality cold blooded murder on Marie's part! With Johnny now in complete charge the Silver Slipper really takes off and eventually expands into the new and high class La Rueda nightclub. On opening night at the La Rueda Dale just happens to show up and Johnny being secretly in love with her starts to make a play for Dale. This all doesn't go too well with the jealous and spiteful Marie who, in a fit of total madness, tries to pin her husband Charlie's death on Johnny not as an accident, as the local court declared, but murder! A murder that Marie, not Johnny, committed!***SPOILERS*** Johnny was in for the fight of him life in defending himself against Marie's charges but in the end it was her not Johnny who cracked under the pressure. Completely failing apart on the witness stand Marie ended up looking like she was hit by four ten ton trucks, from different directions, as she was trying to cross a busy intersection! Now a free man and wanting to marry his one and only love Dale Johnny gets the surprise of his life. Not only isn't the blue-blooded Dale Elwell interested in the non Waspy Mexican/American johnny Ramariz she also feels that he's in no way good enough for her and the crowd that she hangs with! Finally seeing the light, this after another major shock hits him, Johnny goes back home to L.A to practice law for his own people, Mexican/Americans, who both appreciates both him and the services that he, sometimes free of charge, provides for them.

Paul Muni was an East European Jew, so naturally he was cast as a Hispanic Californian.Well, heck, to name just one, Leo Carrillo, a native Hispanic Californian, was cast as everything from Greek to French to Italian to Latino, and so many other "ethnic" actors played various nationalities besides their own heritages.Muni apparently wore dark makeup for this role, but it wasn't a stereotype; it was, in fact, a very sympathetic character.Bette Davis never looked lovelier. For years, I have tried to spread my conspiracy theory that she was not made up, but made down, that she was, in fact, a very lovely lady and the Westmore family apparently had it in for her and put the make-up on in such a way that her looks were coarsened, and she was aged long before her time.She was such a great actress that her looks didn't matter, but she was very attractive and I find it a shame she wasn't allowed to show her natural beauty.The female, though, who stole this movie, both in looks and in animated characterization, was Margaret Lindsay. She was absolutely fascinating in this role as spoiled rich girl, an almost good guy. In fact, she made this movie worth seeing.The presence of a genuine Hispanic, Soledad Jiménez, gives one pause to wonder why more genuine Hispanics weren't cast in movies like this. She was just great.The ending was rather puzzling, perhaps a sop to somebody's nativism, but the story was a good one, the acting was generally great, and all of that, with Archie Mayo's directing, make this one worthwhile.