Forged Passport

Forged Passport was sleeping on my "movies to watch" shelf since a long time. That shelf is at last nearly empty, and I discovered some treasures like Five by Arch Oboler.

This movie directed by John Auer is certainly not a pleasant surprise, it's full of lousy comic scenes with lousy characters, like Mendoza played by exasperating Billy Gilbert. Paul Kelly is ok, especially in a few fight scenes. Camera work is not bad, often using depth field, travelings and fast editing. John Auer has always been a B director, maybe his best title is City that never sleeps.

"Forged Passport" is a B-movie, which you can tell by its short running time (about an hour) as well as its use of mostly second-tier actors. However, despite being a B from Republic Studios, the film isn't bad at all...entertaining and decent as a time-passer.

Paul Kelly* plays a Border Patrol agent. He's great at his job, but he's also a hothead and a bit on the dumb side. As a result, he eventually gets himself fired. But instead of going away and licking his wounds, he decides to work undercover and try to figure out who killed his partner and who is behind all the smuggling. On hand for comic relief is Billy Gilbert, who is, as you'd suspect, quite enjoyable.

While the identity of the mystery man behind all the crime is way too easy to guess, the film is breezy and entertaining. Kelly is quite good and its interesting to see him as the leading man...something he really didn't get to do in A-pictures.

*I did find it odd to see Kelly playing a lawman, as in real life Kelly had spent time in prison for manslaughter. Apparently, the court and Hollywood thought he was either innocent or there were extenuating circumstances, as after he was released (after a relatively short sentence), he went right back to work in films.