User reviews

Archie Mayo's "Bordertown" is a film that by today's standards would be deemed politically incorrect. The idea of the poor Mexican immigrant that wants to better himself, only to see people step all over him, is at the center of this tale.

Juan Ramirez, the young lawyer, trying to defend the victim of an accident caused by the young and reckless Dale Elwell, is defeated by a much more experienced Anglo lawyer, who happened to know the system and the judge, obviously. As a result, Juan, decides to leave L.A. to go to a border town, probably Tijuana, where he becomes a partner of Charlie Roark, a decent man who sees the potential in Johnny, as he calls himself now.

What Charlie doesn't know is that he is married to a scheming woman that couldn't care less for him. She has to get rid of her husband in order to get her hands on his money and looks to Johnny to help her, but of course, he wants nothing to do with her.

Paul Muni was a great star at Warner Bros. at the time of this film. We were never fans of Mr. Muni, who in this film gives a clichéd account of the Hispanic Juan in a performance that goes over the top and doesn't convince anyone. On the other hand, Bette Davis, as Marie Roark, is her usual excellent self in a more nuanced performance. We see why later on, Ms. Davis will use all what she shows in this film and more to be the great star that she was. In minor roles, the formidable Eugene Palette plays Charlie Roark and Margaret Lindsay is seen as Dale Elwell, the rich girl that provoked the accident.

This film is a rarity seldom seen these days.

Although Paul Muni does go over the top a bit in Bordertown, the film remains a savage indictment of racism, concentrating as it does on the struggles of one man in a racial/ethnic minority to find a place in this society.

In a biography of Paul Muni I read that he deliberately hired a Mexican driver who stayed with him for several weeks so he could copy his mannerisms and get down the proper speech pattern. He didn't do half bad as Johnny Ramirez, the disbarred attorney who turns to the dark side.

The story has Muni bright and eager to start making a living as a lawyer and please his mom Soledad Jimenez who sacrificed a lot so her kid could study law. But in his first appearance in court he loses his temper and manages to get himself disbarred.

Had this been a white attorney, I assure you he might have gotten a slap on the wrist and a censure, but not a disbarment. Broken in spirit, Muni ends up working for Eugene Palette at a road house as a bouncer.

He also catches the eye of Palette's wife played by Bette Davis. But Muni has eyes for Margaret Lindsay, a society girl who likes to go slumming. In the end both women disillusion and betray him.

Bordertown is one of the darkest films of the Thirties, the future is by no means clear for Muni. Though he does overact a bit, you will not forget the smoldering anger that he brings to the part of Johnny Ramirez. This was the second of two films in which Paul Muni played a person of Mexican background. The other was Juarez and there is 180 degree difference between the angry Ramirez and the stoic Juarez. You can hardly believe it's the same actor, but Muni had one incredible range as a player.

This is a film that could probably stand a remake. I could see someone like Benjamin Bratt or Lou Diamond Phillips in an updated version as Johnny Ramirez, possibly Edward James Olmos. It was in fact made over in part by Warner Brothers in They Drive By Night. But the Mexican heritage and a great deal more was not included in that film.

Until then I recommend Bordertown highly

As a poor Mexican-American boy, Muni labors to get a night-school law degree, but can't make a professional living in such a poor neighborhood. Ambitious and tough, he works his way into heading a gambling casino. Though a financial success, he loses his way in a white- dominated social world.

It's 1934 and the notorious Hollywood Production Code has just kicked in. Few studios were more affected than Warner Bros., the home of the uncompromising gangster films of Cagney, Robinson, and Muni. There are elements of the typical rags-to-riches gangster theme in this movie, but the tone and content have altered from the pre-Code product. Note the complete absence of gunplay, dead bodies, brutality, and other staples of such pre-Code classics as Public Enemy (1931), Little Caesar (1931), and Scarface (1932).

Technically, this is not a gangster movie-- Muni may be shady, yet he's no criminal. But that too, I believe, results from trying to get right with the new Code. Note how business rivals try to buy out Palette's casino instead of just muscling-in in classic gangster fashion. And though the girls sport some pretty revealing gowns, Muni refuses Davis's overtures, while remaining unclear on his relationship with Lindsey. Such compromises likely result from the producers not wanting sexual relationships to cross racial lines. Contrast this with the strong hints of incest, no less, in the free-wheeling Scarface.

In short, the movie has the trappings of a gangster film, yet departs in ways that I think are traceable to the newly installed Code. Among others, the new strictures were supposed to end public enthrallment with the underworld by deglamorizing it. Thus, Bordertown lacks many of the risky elements that made Warner Bros. such a riveting and dynamic studio during its classical period.

Now, this is not to say the movie is without interest or entertainment value. It took some guts to make Muni's central character a Mexican-American and cast him in a sympathetic light. In fact, the only thoroughly dislikable character is Lindsey's snobbish white boyfriend (Manville). At the same time, I agree with others who think Muni's performance is too florid, along with an accent that sort of comes and goes. He looks the part, but never gets past the impersonation stage. On the other hand, Davis's one scene of nervous frustration while alone in a room is a little gem of mounting hysteria, and makes me appreciate how well she emoted with her expressive eyes. However, it's Margaret Lindsay who walks off with the movie, at least in my view. Her devious upper-class lady is compellingly natural and unaffected, an interesting contrast to Muni's undiluted staginess.

Anyway, the movie may be a come-down from Warner's pre-Code product, but still includes a couple of good twists (e.g. the first courtroom scene). It's also worth a look-see for anyone interested in the evolution of the gangster movie.

Paul Muni is a Mexican-American who has graduated from night law school, but soon learns that a law degree doesn't make you a lawyer. He heads out of town and gets a job as a bouncer at Eugene Pallette's bar. He quickly becomes so invaluable that Pallette cuts him in for a quarter of the take. Meanwhile, Pallette's wife, Bette Davis, develops an itch for him.

Muni is terrific, as always, and the cast, which includes Margaret Lindsay, Henry O'Neill, and Soledad Jiménez, work very well in this tale about a man trying to crash through the racial barrier the right way. That the film makers got this much through the Production Code is a major accomplishment, but this needs to have been a pre-code movie, with all the dirt and sluttishness that implies.

"Bordertown" is the story of a Mexican attorney, Johnny Ramirez, and his fight to make something of himself and realize the American dream. Who better to portray him than the Jewish Paul Muni.

After physically attacking another attorney during a disastrous court appearance, Johnny becomes a bouncer in a nightclub. However, his brains, ability, and negotiation expertise come to the attention of his boss, Roark (Eugene Palette), who agrees to bring him in as a partner.

Johnny has also come to the attention of Marie Roark (Bette Davis), the restless wife of the boss, and she throws herself at him. Johnny, however, has fallen for Dale (Margaret Lindsay), a socialite. Marie kills her husband, and when he rejects her again, she tells the police that Johnny killed Roark.

Paul Muni was an excellent actor whose style of acting is perhaps dated by today's standards. He could disappear into his roles, often to great effect, but unfortunately, he doesn't disappear enough into Johnny Ramirez. His portrayal is over the top and his accent is bad.

The standout is Bette Davis, young and pretty, as the unstable wife. Just off her great success in "Of Human Bondage," which was a loanout by Warners, she demonstrates here how well she takes charge of the screen.

Most of the characters are pretty stereotypical. "Bordertown" is badly dated but worth seeing for its early Bette Davis performance.

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.

A film where everyone gets whats coming to them, and true to the 1930's formula, in melodramatic fashion. Featuring the now forgotten Paul Muni (was he really a superstar back then?) as a Hispanic lawyer who learns a hard lesson about the facts of life. Muni, as usual plays it weird; before and after Bordertown, he is a pretty normal guy but while he is in Bordertown he becomes a Hispanic parody. But nevermind that, this film has Bette Davis playing yet another scheming psychopath as only she can. Like the several other Davis movies that she had a minor role in ("Fog over Frisco" and "In This Our Life", to name two), her twisted character stays with you long after she is gone. Plus, she's a blonde! Yowza!

Confronting Muni in one scene, Davis suddenly so forcefully expels cigarette smoke from her nose that she looks like a cartoon bull about to charge. But though it's funny, it's not ludicrous: it's one of those startling, inspired B.D. moments.

Warners cast Davis in "Bordertown" when it became apparent that her just-completed loanout to RKO for "Of Human Bondage" was not going to wreck her career, as Warners had feared. Instead, as Davis had gambled, the risky "Bondage" had been her breakout performance. "Bordertown" was a worthy follow-up, with Davis just as compelling as the obsessor rather than the obsessee.

You're going to have to get over the fact that in Old Hollywood, white actors were cast as ethnic characters. It happened; there's nothing we can do to change the celluloid. In Bordertown, Paul Muni plays a Mexican who gets his United States citizenship and tries to build a new life for himself. If it makes you feel better, Paul hated getting cast in these parts, and after The Good Earth, he chose not to renew his studio contract for that reason. If you can get past that, Bordertown is a pretty poignant movie. Paul's emotional range behind the character is genuine and heartfelt, earning him a well-deserved Hot Toasty Rag nomination. You're going to need your Kleenexes during this movie. His raw style of acting wasn't commonplace in the early thirties, and I'm always impressed by how modern he seemed. Paul and his mother, Soledad Jimenez, are incredibly proud of his new citizenship. His goal is to become a lawyer to help out poor Mexican families who too often get a bad deal in court. Paul works hard, passes the bar, hangs out his shingle, only to be humiliated during his first court case. Margaret Linsday, a spoiled rich woman, wins the case because she hired a rich, white lawyer. Time after time, Paul gets obstacles put in his path to decency and giving back to his community until he throws in the towel and becomes a nightclub owner. There he meets floozy Bette Davis and her clueless husband Eugene Pallette, where things take an even greater turn for the worse. . .

Paul Muni fans can rent this movie for another great performance, but if you're looking for a solid Bette Davis performance, this isn't it. No one would ever guess she could act if they saw her in this movie.

This film is a soaplover's dream. Will our hero Ramirez go with Bette Davis, or will he go with the silver spoon debutante from LA? This film is not cut and dried. It has at least two major twists which I will not reveal. And the conclusion is probably not what you will think it will be. Muni occasionally goes over the top, but we forgive him because it was the style of the day. Davis does likewise, and we forgive her for the same reason. This is a fast-paced piece of cinema, and the characters are well-defined. Enjoy the ride and add a star if you love soap.

BORDERTOWN (Warner Brothers, 1935), directed by Archie Mayo, stars Paul Muni in one of his many ethnic characterizations for which he is famous. Best known for his Italian accented SCARFACE (1932), followed by his latter biographical passages as both French Louis Pasteur and Emile Zola, along with the Chinese Wang in THE GOOD EARTH (1937), Muni attempts one that of a Mexican who breaks away from his people to make something of himself outside his jurisdiction. As much as BORDERTOWN virtually belongs to Muni during its entire 90 minutes, the movie overall is noted more as a Bette Davis film shortly before her achieving super stardom by 1937. Even though Davis' character comes late into the story (35 minutes from its start), she makes the most out of her character enough to gather the most attention.

Johnny Farada Ramirez (Paul Muni), is a young Hispanic man living with his people in the Mexican quarter of Los Angeles, California. Labeled "THE tough guy of a tough neighborhood," Johnny has made something of himself by studying five years at the Pacific Night Law School, and graduating with other would-be lawyers of all ethnic background. With a diploma in hand, as witnessed by his aged mother (Soledad Jimenez) and close friend, a priest, better known as Padre (Robert Barrat). Johnny abandons his garage mechanical job and opens a law office of his own. After leaving the Café La Paloma with her escort and lawyer friend, Brook Mandigan (Gavin Gordon), socialite Dale Elwell (Margaret Lindsay) drives off in high speed down the road, crashing into the truck driven by Johnny's poor friend, Miguel Diego (Arthur Stone). For his very first courtroom case, Johnny poorly constructs himself, losing his case for Miguel, as told to him in the chambers of the Judge (Samuel S. Hinds). After being called a shyster lawyer by Mandigan, Johnny loses his temper by striking Dale's acting attorney. His savage actions find Johnny disbarred. Feeling Mandigan and Dale won their case because they have money, Johnny's goal now to leave home, make something of himself and earning enough money for himself to become respected. A year later, the once down-and-out Johnny Ramirez has now risen from ballroom bouncer to adviser and partner to Charlie Roark (Eugene Pallette), owner of a gambling casino, The Silver Slipper. Knowing his full worth, Johnny wants and gets his 25 percent interest in Roark's business, thanks to Roark's young and attractive wife, Marie (Bette Davis), who happens to be much more interested in Johnny than her middle-aged, fat businessman husband. Because Marie's married to his friend, Johnny respects Charlie and stays away from his wife. After Charlie meets with an accidental death, Johnny inherits Roark's business and renames it La Rueda Casino. While the business is successful, Marie demands more than money. When she discovers Johnny has been seeing Dale Elwell, who's come back into his life to be with her "savage," Marie stops at nothing to break up their relationship. Other members in the cast include familiar Warner Brothers stock players as William B. Davidson (Doctor Carter, the dentist); Hobart Cavanaugh (Howie); and Henry O'Neill (J. Elwell Benson). Look for Arthur Treacher (Roberts, the Butler) and Akim Tamiroff in uncredited roles. If some of the plot sounds familiar, certain scenes were revamped into a trucking story titled THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT (Warner Brothers, 1940) starring George Raft, Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino and Humphrey Bogart. Raft assumes the Muni part as the ambitious trucker while Alan Hale plays the Pallette part of boss and business partner, but it's Ida Lupino who comes off best reprising Davis' impulsive Marie. While Lupino's performance was easily a standout, her performance is over the top acting as opposed to Davis doing very much the same but in a better and more natural style. For BORDERTOWN, Davis shows her early ability to become a good dramatic actress, especially during the courtroom scene where her method of going insane is different and better constructed than Lupino's.

Though the role of the ambitious Mexican Johnny could have been played by a Hispanic-born actor as Gilbert Roland for example, it's the better known Paul Muni, in darker hairstyle and Spanish accent, who becomes more Mexican by being as opposed to playing a Mexican. Though noted for not being one to be type-cast by playing the same role twice, Muni played a Mexican once more, this time as a historical figure of JUAREZ (1939). Though Bette Davis became Muni's co-star once again, she and Muni shared no scenes together in what would have been their second (and final) collaboration. BORDERTOWN is nearly a forgotten melodrama known for its early screen depiction of racial prejudice among Hispanic-Americans, and a Mexican's uneasy struggle for equality with the outside world. It's not only available on DVD, but can be seen from time to time on cable television's Turner Classic Movies. (*** jumping beans)

In L.A., idealistic Mexican-American Johnny Ramirez is a new lawyer to the delight of his mother. He takes the case of poor Manuel Diego whose truck got destroyed by the reckless driving of drunk debutante Dale Elwell. He loses his temper in court and loses his licence. He sees his plight as a result of the high priced lawyer and his own poor background. He goes to Mexico to work as a bouncer for casino owner Charlie Roark. He becomes Roark's trusted right hand man who is married to wife Marie (Bette Davis).

Bette Davis doesn't come in until after thirty minutes. In a way, the movie is almost divided by that and the change in Johnny's character. His anger issue is not set up before the court case. It comes out of nowhere and the character is a Jekyll and Hyde situation. He's two different characters, one before the trial and one after. Even the way he talks is different. With set up of his self-assurance and explosive anger, his failure in court could lead to his spiral downwards in a more believable way. The script was changed due to the Code and that may have changed the character in the first act. Twenty something Bette Davis has the charisma and the horsepower for this movie. I would love a movie of her and Johnny in a wild dysfunctional relationship. Instead, I am uncertain about Johnny's character journey. The movie is trying for a theme of the corruption of money and it comes off as too heavy-handed. There may be a great story in here but it gets muddled a little.

PAUL MUNI with dark make-up and an Hispanic accent is a hot-blooded Mexican lawyer who turns to a different sort of life when his career as a lawyer leads nowhere. He works for EUGENE Palette in a gambling joint and is soon the jovial man's partner. On the sidelines watching him is BETTE DAVIS, in one of her early femme fatale roles, a bleached blonde whose advances toward Muni are promptly rebuffed.

A sub-plot involving Muni's romance with a society girl (MARGARET LINDSEY) is really rather predictable, especially when she flirts with him from the start and then turns on him when he becomes serious, flinging words at him like "savage" and "brute" and telling him to stay with "his own tribe." The script resolves this ill-fated affair in an abrupt manner before the fade-out.

The highlight of the drama is Bette Davis turning on Muni too, on the stand, declaring that he conspired with her to kill her husband, when in fact she is the guilty one. She goes to pieces on the stand, allowing us a Bette Davis moment that was an indication of the kind of actress she was on the verge of becoming.

Frankly, this whole story bears a strong relationship to another tale Warners produced in '41 with Ida Lupino as the stressed out woman filled with guilt over the murder of her husband. Lupino was even more impressive in her mad moment than Davis. In fact, the whole picture was smoother and produced with more polish than this similar version using some of the same story elements.

Summing up: Intense drama suffers from Muni's overacting as the Mexican lawyer and a script that doesn't develop the wife's character sufficiently to lead to her mental breakdown. A better version is THEY DRIVE BY NIGHT ('41)with George Raft and Ida Lupino and Alan Hale as the hubby she wants to get rid of.

"Bordertown" features a far more convincing performance from Paul Muni, who manages to curtail his usual theatrical approach to film acting. Bette Davis is an excellent female lead for Muni and their scenes radiate with tension. Maragret Lindsay is OK in the supporting cast but she isn't in Davis's league. Paul Muni plays a newly qualified lawyer who decides to make a career for himself near the Mexican border after some problems earlier on in the film. He is employed by a wealthy businessman (Eugene Pallete) to handle all the legal wranglings for his building firm. However, trouble soon rears its head in the form of the businessman's wife, Bette Davis. The second half of "Bordertown" was remade by "Warner Bros" for the 1940 film, "They Drive By Night." It is a coin toss as to who is more fiery and feisty out of Bette Davis and Ida Lupino in the same role. For me, it is an even draw. The plot and the narrative are both strong and with some good dialogue. This is one of the best films Paul Muni whilst at "Warner Bros."

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.

In Los Angeles, poor Mexican-American mechanic Paul Muni (as Johnny Ramirez) studies hard to become a lawyer. After losing his first case, an ill-tempered Mr. Muni punches out the opposing attorney. Disbarred, and carrying a chip on his shoulder, Muni goes to work as strong-arm manager for gravelly-voiced Eugene Palette (as Charlie Roark) in a Mexican "Bordertown". Business booms and Muni is made a partner. However, Muni must fend off bosomy blonde bombshell Bette Davis (as Marie), Mr. Palette' s trophy wife. Muni prefers pretty socialite Margaret Lindsay (as Dale Elwell)...

Eventually, Muni finds himself on the wrong side of the law...

The main problem with "Bordertown" is that the message is to stay in your own "place," and with your own "class" of people. You will see the characters who venture outside their own "kind" are punished. Also, Muni and Ms. Davis were both capable of scratching the edges of their acting range, which sometimes resulted in great performances - but sometimes not. Early in the running, Muni's hot-tempered Spanish youth is too much of a stretch. He gets better as Davis slowly begins to chew the scenery. Both would end the year with better roles, and "Academy Award" winning performances.

***** Bordertown (1/23/35) Archie Mayo ~ Paul Muni, Bette Davis, Margaret Lindsay, Eugene Palette