A Lady Without Passport (1950)

I love this movie so much

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The lady from the title refers to Hedy Lamarr. However, although her character is referred to in the title of the film, she really is not the star of this picture. Instead, John Hodiak is the star and he does a very nice job playing dual roles--an American immigration agent as well as a stateless Hungarian.When the film begins, a man is accidentally run over when escaping from someone. Why folks are chasing him isn't certain...and you learn more about this as the film progresses. It seems that this unknown dead man is an illegal alien...and clues on his body point to his having just been in Cuba. So, Peter (Hodiak) goes down to this island nation to investigate...with the help of the local police. The trail then leads to a smooth but deadly jerk, played very well by George Macready (he played snake-like characters very well). So how is pretty Hedy involved? Watch the film.I think for Ms. Lamarr, this film was a letdown and didn't do a lot for her career. Now it isn't because it's a bad film at all...it's very good. But she isn't given a lot to do but look pretty...even, inexplicably, during a trek through the Everglades near the end of the film...and her makeup and hair look superb!!! I live in Florida and even if this had been in the middle of winter, she sure COULDN'T have looked that perfect! Well worth seeing...and an interesting and unusual plot.

I always wondered what the story was on Hedy Lamarr. I'd never seen her in anything before this film, only heard about her in Mel Brooks jokes and so forth. Turns out she was also a Math genius, but if this film is anything to go on, she offered little more than a pretty face to the acting profession. The only thing that was memorable about this film was the location shooting in Havana. The highlight of the Cuban segment was the Mambo music and dancing as the lead walks into a seedy little nightclub. This 1950 film predates Mambo Mania in the US by a few years, by 1955 Cuba and the music that came with it were all the rage stateside and featured in numerous TV shows and films. Lots of 'Casablanca-esque' scenes of stranded refugees in this one, but unlike that film, you'll have already forgotten everybody's name by the time the credits roll.

Wow, now this was a turkey. Even a couple of name brand actors couldn't save this thing.A couple of Immigration officials in Miami have had it with an organization sneaking in immigrants. One illegal gets killed in Miami and they decide to infiltrate the home base in Havana. Things don't too well and with a few missteps the crooks get away...but Immigration gives chase.Thats's pretty much it. You get a decent performance outta John Hodiak but Hedy Lamarr is just there for you to look at. Just as beautiful as any female to grace the screen. Nobody ever accused her of trying to win an Oscar and after watching this you can see why. They try to throw in a curve ball to make the film interesting in that Hedy Lamarr is stuck from one port to another and can't get citizenship anywhere cause she was a concentration camp survivor who was deported and can't get to stay anywhere. Even with that injected this thing is just dull and bland the whole way.A couple of fun parts to watch for. A scene early one where the undercover Immigration official goes into town after dark in a café where a girl is dancing.Take a close look at the girl. She ain't Cuban. Just a small white girl painted on with a deep dark tan. Reminds me of those old westerns where the Indians were all white guys darkened up. I think the best part is the plane chase sequence. They wanna keep track of this guy flying so they keep the navy on him with a flier. My issue is if these smugglers were so wanted why didn't they dispatch more planes to follow? The plane deliberately crashes and they coulda had another plane follow the raft the go off on. What a laugh. The worst is the plane crash itself. No one in the plane had seats so they had to sit on their luggage. The plane(model plane) crashes and hits a tree really hard and they all get out OK. Now I've never been in a plane crash but in this case, physics would dictate most if not all those passengers woulda flown out the cockpit window with the speed the plane hit that tree.Save your time and watch the sun set in a lawn chair with a cold beer and be happy you avoided a 73 minute waste of time.

Hedy wanted to go back to her old studio, MGM with some pride after her great success in Samson and Delilah. Mayer wanted her so badly, he first offered her the role of Poppea in Quo Vadis with her old co star Robert Taylor from Lady of the Tropics. Fortunately she refused that role. Then Mayer offered her this role when it was originally titled "Visa". She didn't think much of it either, but she was quite satisfied as bleeding Mr Mayer of $90000.00 for the role. He wanted to capitalize on her 'comeback' and he reluctantly agreed. Getting money out of him was like getting water out of a rock. It was quite a feat for Hedy. It was a very high price for an actress at that time. Today, even starlets get that amount. But it turned out to be a nice little film, mainly because of her beauty. Hodiak was not the ideal leading man. Mcready was his typical nasty self and very good.