Forbidden Passage

Immigration issues are always tricky to deal with in American cinema because the contribution of immigration to our national character and prosperity due to the unlimited immigration of the 19th century is still a matter of pride and should be. But during the Roaring Twenties when we adopted more stringent immigration policy our attitudes changed. Even now sad to say its not uncommon for the descendants of immigrants to be the ones pushing the hardest for stringent immigration policy. It's like the last groups in want to bang the door shut and lock it against the future.

So in the Thirties with a whole lot of folks looking to get out of Europe because of Fascism, Communism and whatever other kind of totalitarianism you can name, we see MGM lauding the US Immigration Service in this Crime Does Not Pay Short. It's an ironic title here, Forbidden Passage, because the title is referring to a Forbidden Passage to America and freedom for the people you see in this short. Further ironical because it's directed by Fred Zinnemann who also fled Europe and would go on to a directorial career that got him two Oscars.

Addison Richards plays the intrepid head of the Florida branch of our Immigration Service and the short shows how he and our government deal with people who ruthlessly take advantage of the hopes and aspirations of millions of refugees. We still got those kind of ruthless people today.

This film might be timely for some even now because Moslem terrorism has kept immigration as an issue on the front burner. But in 1941 before Pearl Harbor this was one great message for our film industry to be sending abroad. Stay in Europe and be persecuted or risk running our strict immigration laws in America. I guess in one word a review of this film is YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESH.

And Forbidden Passage got nominated for Best Short Subject. All I can say is DOUBLE YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESH.

In the first few years of the Crime Does Not Pay series, the topics usually covered murder, organized crime and the like. Starting around the time WWII broke out, the topics became less and less about these topics and more and more preachy--emphasizing good citizenship. This one manages to both be about good citizenship AND is exciting and violent--and it more watchable than most of this war-era films.

It begins as all these films do--with an actor dressed up like some government official introducing the film! I think MGM wanted to make the films seem more convincing by pulling a fast one on the audiences! The topic of "Forbidden Passage" is the business of trafficking in illegal aliens. To combat the problem, a special agent (Hugh Beaumont) goes under cover. The problem is that when the crooks think that they are about to get caught, they put the illegals in sacks, wrap chains around them and toss them into the water using a secret trap door on their ships. It really is horrifying to see them being jettisoned this way--and although it's pretty sick, it was also very exciting and the climax was entertaining. Worth your time.

This is one of five crime shorts on the Warner Bros Classic Noir collection 3,that goes under the banner of "Crime doesn't pay",so what you are getting is basically a Government propaganda film that details the smuggling of illegal aliens into the US from Europe via Central America. The US customs sets up a sting operation involving under cover agents and follows would be illegals on board the ship to Florida, its a well made film with some gruesome moments when the smugglers try and get rid of the "Live Illegals" when customs challenge them and that is basically the message of the film "Don't try and gain illegal entry, it could just cost you your life"

This is the Crime Does Not Pay series. The U. S. Immigration Service is trying to catch smugglers and stop illegal immigration. The Florida division finds a dead body in the swamps. It's a man trying to sneak back in from Portugal. They suspect a smuggling ring. A corrupt official in the Lisbon Consulate office is the starting point for a dangerous desperate journey.

This is actually an interesting subject matter. Unlike today, the immigrants are not demonized. They are not all a dirty and crime-ridden mob trying to replace lily white folks. It's also interesting to see a different people smuggling scheme. Most sea-bourn people smuggling today is done with containers. This one gets quite brutal. It's more shocking than the average gangster shootouts. Those are fun. This is scary.

This is maybe one of the more harrowing of these "Crime Does Not Pay" short features as it rather graphically displays both the desperation and frustration of those trying to get into the USA and the ruthlessness of the people smugglers who charge them $2,000 each to, hopefully, achieve their goal. It's when a body weighed down with chains is discovered in Florida that the immigration service decides to investigate one such ring of criminals that operates out of Portugal via Belize - but it is a well covered track and these folks take no chances. If they think they are at risk of being caught, then it's the bilge hatches for the refugees and they just keep their cash. It serves as a sort of public information film that appears to suggest to upstanding citizens that they ought to report any unexpected arrivals in their communities to the authorities for verification and as a drama it has quite an effectively claustrophobic impact, too.