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7 out of 7 people found the following review useful: Marvelous, 9 March 2003 Author: cairnsdavid from Edinburgh, Scotland
As good a script as Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett ever wrote! Mitchell Leisen directs with some flair too. This film drove Wilder to become a director after Charles boyer had a sequence cut - from then on, Wilder was able to protect his screenplays from such treatment. But any trouble behind the scenes doesn't really harm the film itself, which is a joy. An even more abrasive protagonist than usual, Charles Boyer's gigolo nevertheless builds up colossal sympathy - it's an approach Wilder would replicate in THE LOST WEEKEND to Oscar-winning effect. But EVERYBODY in this film is marvelous, as is the inventive story, inspired by Wilder's own time in mexico awaiting a visa to allow him into the States.
10 out of 13 people found the following review useful: Green card, 19 April 2004 Author: jotix100 from New York
It is curious how times change. More than 60 years ago, people fleeing Europe went to Mexico to try to gain access to the United States. Today, instead of going the legal route, they would probably hire a coyote to take them to the other side of the border! The more things change, the more they stay the same.This film is interesting because of the screen play by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett, although the IMDB only lists the latter one as the writer. It is a mistake to bypass the great Billy Wilder, when we see his imprint everywhere in the movie. The movie begins with a disheveled Charles Boyer going to the Paramount lot to talk to the director, Mitchell Leisen. Boyer's character, George Iscovescu, has met the director in the Riviera and comes to beg for a loan of $500, a tidy sum in those days. From there the story unfolds.George quickly learns after arriving in the border town, that because being Rumanian he must wait about 8 years to enter the United States because of immigration quotas. He quickly learns the only way to make it across the border is if he would marry an American woman, and voila!, Emmy Brown, just happens to come to spend the 4th of July holiday with her students, thus his chance to make it in a legal way.The cast of the film is excellent. Charles Boyer, in spite of not being upfront with the naive Emmy, doesn't make us hate him. He redeems himself at the end. Olivia de Havilland was perfect for the immature Emmy. She falls in love with a man that is trying to use her as his ticket to the promised land. Paulette Goddard, as Anita was very good. Walter Abel is the despised Inspector Hammock, the immigration officer everyone in town hates.Don't miss it either on tape or DVD format.
7 out of 8 people found the following review useful: The Immigration Problem in 1941 - A Revelation, 7 February 2007 Author: theowinthrop from United States
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
Billy Wilder knew first hand what it was to be a refugee in the 1930s - he was one of the lucky ones. He came from Austria, originally, and fled in a timely manner before the Nazis' Anschluss in 1938. His family still suffered - many perished in the camps. But he was able, due to his stage and film work in Europe, to find employment in Hollywood. This enabled him to avoid the savage pitfalls of the American immigration quota system set up in the 1920s. You normally had to wait for an opening in the number of immigrants coming from each country to pass into the U.S.A., unless of course you were guaranteed a job or career in the U.S.A. That's why Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi had no problems showing up in the U.S. with their physics backgrounds and reputations. But how many people were like them, or like the creative film personality Wilder? Taking Kitti Frings' original story of European refugees in Mexico, Wilder and his partner Charles Brackett constructed the script for HOLD BACK THE DAWN. George Iscovescu (Charles Boyer)is a Rumanian gigolo who has ended up on the Mexican/American border. We see he has sneaked into the U.S., and is in Hollywood at Paramount Studios. He approaches a director a friend told him about, Dwight Saxon (Mitchel Leisin - the director of this film). The film we watch is the story that Iscovescu wants to interest Saxon in producing as a film.Iscovescu is a pretty rotten individual - he uses his good looks and charm on women and lives off them. Only one woman (Anita Dixon - Paulette Goddard) is aware of his heel's personality, as she is an opportunist as well. She and George were an item together as dancing partners in Europe. Both are trying to get into America, but the quota is keeping George out. This is a relief to Inspector Hammock (Walter Abel) who is an astute member of the immigration service, and fully aware of how "desireable" both these people are as potential U.S. citizens. However, in 1941 there was a way to get into the U.S. if you could not fit a quota, or if you had no guaranteed job. The method (which was legal until about five years ago) was that you could marry an American citizen and become one. This method was misused, so the immigration service made sure that the marriages were truly love matches and then decided they were not good enough anymore. But that was long after 1941.George looks for someone he can quickly marry, gain citizenship through, and then discard in a year or so. He finds an American school teacher named Emmy Brown (Olivia De Haviland), who is a little naive. He romances very quickly, and within a few weeks George and Emmy are married. Hammock is observing all this, and tries to warn Emmy, but she won't hear anything about George. The problem though is that Emmy is so in love with George that (despite his man-of-the-world shell) he starts responding to it. Anita keeps reminding him to go across the border, and send for her, but instead (to her growing dismay) she finds that George is spending all of his time getting to know Emmy better - and actually falling in love with her. Jealous and angry, Anita decides to reveal George and her past to Emmy - and the crisis of the film comes out of this revelation.Frankly from my description one can say that HOLD BACK THE DAWN is superior soap opera. But in fact Wilder and Brackett took a serious look at the problem of immigration. Besides the antics of George and Anita and Emmy, they look at Professor Van den Leuken (Victor Francen, in one of his nicer parts), a minor-Fermi or Einstein, waiting for a college position promised him to be cleared: Bonbois (Curt Bois), a French hairdresser, hoping for an opening in the quota - who happens (thanks to Van den Leuken) to discover he has a secret historical weapon that will open his way into America; and - possibly the most touching figure in the film - Berta Kurz (Rosemary De Camp) a German (probably German Jewish) refugee with her husband, who is pregnant and really determined that her child is going to be an American citizen come hell or high water. And she achieves her goal.The acting was of high order, and really Olivia De Haviland's best part after GONE WITH THE WIND two years earlier. If Melanie Wilkes was a decent, brave example of southern womanhood, Emmy is a woman who gradually finds she is an adult woman with sexual feelings. As a result of her performance, De Haviland got her first nomination for a best actress Oscar, but (ironically - and bitterly) she would lose to her own sister Joan Fontaine for SUSPICION.Boyer played one of his darker figures, like Pepi Le Moko, who one could sympathize with after a fact - especially after he reveals he has a finer self than we thought. As for Goddard, this film and the earlier THE WOMAN demonstrated that she was a highly capable actress - not just a good reactor to her first husband Charlie Chaplin in two movies.Wilder and Bracket had clashed with Leisin on other joint projects, just as Preston Sturgis had. This would prove to be the last screenplay by them that he (or any other director) would direct. Well enough for Wilder perhaps (and even his then partner Charles Brackett). But despite their complaints, Leisin's work was quite above average in this movie.
7 out of 8 people found the following review useful: Three stars shine in interesting romantic drama..., 4 April 2001 Author: Neil Doyle from U.S.A.
Charles Boyer, Olivia de Havilland and Paulette Goddard deserve high praise for their performances in this poignant and touching slice of Americana from Mitchell Leisen (who later directed de Havilland in 'To Each His Own'). Basically the story of a European gigolo (Boyer) who wants to get into the United States without a long wait in Mexico. His girlfriend and ex-dancing partner (Paulette Goddard) convinces him to marry an unsuspecting American schoolteacher (de Havilland)in order to gain fast entry before ditching her. Colorful supporting characters come to life--most notably Walter Abel as an immigration officer and Rosemary de Camp as a pregnant woman who wants her child born in the U.S. Boyer narrates the story to a film director (Mitchell Leisen) and we see the story unfold in flashback from his point of view. Excellent work by all concerned. My only complaint is the abrupt ending--which I understand was a result of trouble with Boyer who wanted certain scenes rewritten--a final scene between him and de Havilland would have been preferable to what seems like a letdown for the finale. As it is, it looks like choppy editing before "The End" flashes on the screen. Still, a romantic drama with an abundant amount of dry humor and some crackling dialogue by Paulette Goddard who sparkles in her role as "the other woman". Her confrontation scene with the schoolteacher is one of the highlights of the film. De Havilland was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar for this, but lost to her sister, Joan Fontaine, for 'Suspicion'.
4 out of 4 people found the following review useful: Send these ,the homeless,tempest-tost to me/I lift my lamp beside the golden door., 18 January 2007 Author: dbdumonteil
How can you be French and not love this film? First the lead is French;and in a small supporting part,there is Victor Francen,one of Julien Duvivier's ("La Fin Du Jour ",1939) and Abel Gance's ("J'accuse" 1918 and 1937) favorite actors.Plus "La Marseillaise " in the final sequences.Plus Olivia De Havilland who has been living in Paris for years.Except for Bertrand Tavernier,most of FRench critics do not speak highly of Mitchell Leisen's overlooked gem.This is the kind of superior melodrama I love.Olivia De Havilland is one of the greatest actresses of all time,one of those who never think twice when it comes to playing demeaning parts.She is so moving,so tender and so endearing that beauty Paulette Goddard almost leaves me indifferent.And I wonder why Boyer...The very structure of the film is highly original,being a long flashback,the hero telling his story (perhaps too much voice over) to a director to earn money (but we will know why in the last minutes )because he thinks all his trials can make a great film!Truth can be stranger than fiction cause he is in a film himself! The subject of the movie is still topical today when you see so many people leaving their country for the wealthy ones (not only America:in France ,Russians and others are actually fighting to get French citizenship).For that matter,one of the peaks is when Victor Francen declaims Emma Lazarus's poem which is graven on a tablet within the pedestal on which the Statue of Liberty stands.There are subplots and Mitchell Leisen's talent manages to make them as interesting as the three leads .You may remember the lady who wants his baby to be an American and the way she makes her dream come true,maybe more than Boyer/Havilland's honeymoon.A honeymoon that takes them to an old Mexican village where they go to mass,with a candle in their hand.A scene that recalls Murnau's "daybreak" .Emmy (De Havilland) is a woman who has never known love.She really wants to hold back the dawn ,to make her dream longer than the night.She gave all she had and she 's so altruistic she even returns good for evil.When she realizes that she's through with her pursuit of happiness,she simply puts her glasses.I had seen Leisen's film when I was still a child.I saw it last night.With the same pleasure.
4 out of 4 people found the following review useful: A GREAT MOVIE! DVD please., 5 March 2005 Author: drogers-11 from United States
This movie is worth watching for the performances of Olivia deHavilland--unbelievably naive but Olivia has an internal sincerity that carries it off--and Charles Boyer--jaded and conniving but wonderful and romantic, a much better actor than is remembered. And Paulette Goddard too. Just watching these 3 actors in a movie is great fun. It's also an interesting and sympathetic view of a group of immigrants fleeing the war in Europe who had made it to Mexico with the hope of getting into the US. (The film came out in 1941--probably before the US had entered the war.) Boyer is Romanian, a dancer and gigolo who is broke and feeling hopeless by the time he meets Olivia, a teacher who has brought her students on a field trip to Mexico for the 4th of July (which seems like rather an odd choice when you think about it). And, there is some really tiresome interactions between the teacher and her quite incorrigible students--but hang on, it passes. Then we get to watch Boyer's insincere seduction of her and then her authentic seduction of him, the discovery of his trick and potential paradise lost. The ending? Boy, I'd love to know the story of that ending--was it the original as written? Please Paramount, put it out on DVD with commentary. Somebody must know. Anyway, despite its flaws, the performances are wonderful and it's a viewing pleasure. (Yes, a 10 is a little high for a rating--in quality, it's probably more like an 8, but in fun- value, I still give it 10, and maybe it will help get it DVDed.)
4 out of 4 people found the following review useful: They Don't Make 'em like this any more!, 22 July 2004 Author: dougandwin from Adelaide Australia
It is a sad reflection that many of the movies made so long ago still compare brilliantly with the best of today. "Hold Back the Dawn" is one of those - superbly put together by Billy Wilder & Charles Brackett, and with some of the finest acting of 1941. Outtanding are Charles Boyer, in what I feel is his best acting, and Olivia de Havilland who apparently had to go to Paramount to be appreciated (her two Oscar films were made there, and she was nominated also for this one!) is a standout. Paulette Goddard in a role almost written for her was very good, and the supporting cast was excellent. Migrants trying to get into the United States has always been a hot topic, but here it is treated sympathetically in a very informative way. I have to say the ending was not well done, and one gets the feeling all was not well somewhere.
3 out of 3 people found the following review useful: Terrific yarn which--unlike many melodramas from this era--leaves a genuine impression..., 27 May 2006 Author: moonspinner55 from redlands, ca
Charles Boyer, stuck in Mexico due to immigration problems, plans to get into the United States by way of marriage to schoolteacher Olivia de Havilland, who is under the impression that Boyer really loves her. Romantic drama with a complicated scenario has a sometimes uneven tone (the linchpin of the plot has Boyer deceiving de Havilland as long as possible, which undermines their courtship sequences with a bit of sourness). Still, the look of the picture is fascinating, the art direction and cinematography vivid and memorable...and, as always, Olivia plays a simple, good-hearted woman like nobody's business; she simply glows in roles such as this. Boyer is also fine--though, because of the mechanics of the plot, he isn't terribly sympathetic. *** from ****
4 out of 5 people found the following review useful: Bit of a tearjerker, 28 November 2002 Author: Star5 from England
A fabulous film with an all star cast of Charles Boyer, Olivia De Havilland and Paulette Goddard. Boyer plays a man who is trying to get US citizenship, the only way by which turns out to be, marrying De Havilland's character. There is a sweet scene between the two when they set off on honeymoon and they play beautifully together throughout. Paulette Goddard is wonderful as the scheming other half and it's nice to see at the end that she gets what she's after!! Clever start to the film too - look out for Veronica Lake making a movie - and a lovely ending that really couldn't get any better.
2 out of 2 people found the following review useful: A little-known gem, 10 March 1999 Author: Oriel from Athens, Georgia
One of the all-time great tearjerkers, this film satisfies on many levels: it offers a truly involving and emotionally moving story, an abundance of well-drawn and complex characters, an unusual setting, and three excellent stars (Charles Boyer, Olivia de Havilland, and Paulette Goddard). Boyer's character narrates much of the film, describing how he woos and weds sweet schoolteacher de Havilland in order to gain American citizenship, and this device allows us to listen in as his jaded, mercenary persona mellows and purifies under the influence of his innocent bride. Full of wry humor and a colorful supporting cast, this film deserves to be better known.
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