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By the time of "Lady Without a Passport," Hedy Lamarr had seen better days. Of course, having seen better days for Hedy Lamarr would be any other beautiful woman's ultimate moment. She was one of the great film beauties. She never was one of the great film actresses, however, although she's pretty good in this post-war film about immigrants trying to get into the U.S. illegally with the help of the always oily George Macready. Immigration operative John Hodiak is sent to Havana, where he poses as a Hungarian trying to get into the states. He falls in love with Lamarr along the way.

John Hodiak, who facially has always reminded me of Martin Landau, does a very good job. There is some magnificent Havana scenery to behold. For me the film bogs down in the protracted ending as everyone is tracing a plane, but picks up again in scenes filmed in the Florida everglades.

The movie is black and white and very atmospheric.

History repeats itself, again and again. Cuba was a magnet for people running away from Europe, before and after WWII. The country was a stepping stone for entering legally, or illegally, in the United States. At that time Cubans lived somewhat placidly in their land, but as things changed there, they are the ones trying to escape from the horrible conditions in that country.

We are taken along to Havana by an Inmigration officer trying to find who is behind the smuggling of illegal refugees into America. This officer gets to know soon after his arrival the connection is Polinov, a shady character who has a pretty thing going operating from his Gulf Stream bar in the old section of town.

Joseph H. Lewis directed this MGM film that has a look of being a B type picture, even though Hedy Lamarr was the main attraction going for it. Ms. Lamarr was totally wasted in the movie. As Marianne, the gorgeous woman who wants to get to America, she shows hardly any emotion and is, in general, a bland addition to the film. John Hodiak shows some intensity and speaks with a heavy accent. George Macready is the evil Palinov.

The film shows a few scenes taken in Havana in all its beauty.

Hedy Lamarr is the Lady Without a Passport, stuck in Havana and looking to get to the USA by any means necessary. George Macready is willing to help for a hefty price. John Hodiak is an immigration cop who is undercover investigating Macready's activities. Both have taken an interest in Lamarr and who could blame them for that.

Hedy's career had been sliding downhill until her film just prior to A Lady Without a Passport. She had just come off Cecil B. DeMille's Samson and Delilah which was a comeback film for her.

So from a mammoth multimillion dollar Cecil B. DeMille film, Hedy went into this? Don't get me wrong, A Lady Without a Passport is a good low budget crime drama. But I would have thought Hedy must have gotten better offers after Samson and Delilah.

Anyway though it's worth a look. George Macready is always one of the most fascinating villains the screen has ever produced.

Before they went wide screen MGM, had a brief period of taking on likely action movie directors and pouring more money into their work than they or the audience were used to. Anthony Mann benefited with BORDER INCIDENT. John Sturges got THE PEOPLE AGAINST O'HARA and Joe Lewis scored this sweaty thriller, where the character people who enlivened his Columbia work can be seen milling round behind Metro's contract leads.

The director was demoted to B movies after this, rather unjustly, as it's not only probably his most ambitious outing but also a very efficient entertainment. Lewis' handling breaks through the Metro gloss occasionally - the facing profiles of the death struggle, McCready firing into the fog after Hodiak has tricked him.

The immigrant smuggling story adds surprising elements like the professionalism of the bad guys. "If he is killed he will be replaced - probably by a smarter man."

One of the best aspects is the film's picture of Cuba, with Hodiak squiring Hedy's double round the real city along with studio construction which runs to a functional tramway, art director interiors and back projection. The seedy, fading opulent hotel the leads share is particularly evocative.

While the process work occasionally shows, the model plane crash is a considerable set piece.

The glamour shots of Hedy reveal the studio input, not altogether to the film's advantage. She acts well enough and looks mature-appealing with the hints of having been around enough to accept McCready's protection.

Surprisingly sympathetic treatment of aliens "A little thing like an accent, a foreign name will set you apart" relates to the Dore Schary era multi culturalism of BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK or BORDER INCIDENT again.

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.

It almost feels "A Lady Without Passport" shot today could be a comedy: John Hodiak playing half the film with a Cuban accent, Hedy Lamarr, the ice-cold Jewish princess often seeming not the least bit interested... but, it's meant serious and has a solid feel. Not badly directed by Benny Lewis' brother, Joseph, shot mostly on Lot 3 doubling for pre-Castro Havana, S. Florida and the Everglades (the swamp buggy was authentic, the café sequence, a set), the location work with doubles in Florida and Cuba cuts smoothly with principal photography, though the miniature work is a little choppy. David Raksin's atonal score pulls together the films dark 50s moods of terror and careful optimism.

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.

Good film noir with Hedy Lamarr and John Hodiak. I think John Hodiak was a weak choice for this film; but I think that piece of casting was due to the low budget of this film; Hedy was reputedly paid $90,000, because of 'Samson and Delilah' This film could have obviously been better. However, I am a big Hedy Lamarr fan, and I thought 'Lady Without Passport, A' was a good film.

This movie gets some good laughs for the hilarious accents and the airplane chase scene. The scene involves two toy planes suspended over scenery drawn on a conveyor belt. The belt moves below the planes as they wiggle from side to side on their wires. The escaping pilot then deliberately crashes his plane into a tree and everyone walks away. Looks like they spent all of their special effects money on accent coaches and Hedy Lamar. It gets even funnier after the Border Patrol agents go after the "aliens" to save the from crocodiles and water moccasins in the "jungle" of Florida. Castro must have watched this movie before he decided to throw the Yanks out.

The title character of "A Lady Without Passport" is Marianne Lorress (Hedy Lamar), a Viennese ex-patriate who has waited years to immigrate to the U.S. where her father lives. She is stuck in Cuba due to American regulations and is down on her luck. There she meets Pete Karczag (John Hodiak), an INS agent who is trying to bust a smuggling ring.

An ex-pat in a way station, waiting to leave but held back by the authorities. Where have we heard that before? Yes, this is undoubtedly another of the films inspired by the success of "Casablanca" (1942). But it lacks the intensity or charm of the Bogart vehicle. The set for the hotel in this film looks like the set from "To Have and Have Not" (1944), another film about ex-pats trying to get away.

But let me focus on the positive aspects of the film. First, there is John Hodiak. The character he plays is clever and street smart--traits that Hodiak pulls off quite well. Secondly, there are the Havana location shots that add an authenticity and the little bit of charm that the film possesses. Lastly, the (B&W) photography shows some originality and adds to the mood of the narrative.

The music feels inappropriate at times, but first-rate at other times. Ms. Lamar falls short of being the woman who drives the story and who inspires a man to risk his life.

A traffic accident uncovers a criminal human smuggling ring in Cuba. INS agent Peter Karczag (John Hodiak) is sent to investigate. Local police tells him about slick master criminal Palinov (George Macready) who can sense any undercover agent. That's what Peter tries to be. He pretends to be Hungarian refugee Josef Gombush and makes a big show of being rejected by the embassy. He gets led to Palinov. Marianne Lorress (Hedy Lamarr) is another refugee desperate to get to the States.

I really like the initial stuff in Cuba. I like the premise in general although I don't know about the plane. Smuggling people with a plane must be very expensive. I kept thinking of a boat from Cuba to Florida. It does give the opportunity for a very interesting looking plane crash. It can't be a miniature. It must be a real plane and it's probably the plane where they are getting out. There are somethings to nitpick, but I can't do it with the everglades. The location is too cool no matter how unreal.

In retrospect, film noir is an exciting concept. Of course in reality, there was no such thing at its peak in the 1940s and 1950s. French critics coined the term in the sixties, and it has stuck.

Sadly, today people who made these generally low budget movies are making undistinguished TV movies. Many of those who would have gone into a studio's B-unit are doing so, not all.

With some notable exceptions like "Double Indemnity," the main characteristic of what we now call noir is low budgets. And what director REALLY would prefer a low budget to a higher one, the name value of Ann Savage to that of Hedy Lamarr? Which brings us to this terribly disappointing movie. The great noir director Joseph H. Lewis is working here for MGM and has quite a cast. In addition to the gorgeous Ms. Lamarr, he has the handsome John Hodiak as his leading man. In addition, he has James Craig and that great villain George Macready.

Who knows what went wrong? But clearly something did. The movie starts fairly promisingly but degenerates quickly. To be honest, I couldn't wait for it to end. And it looks -- looks: They're not here to ask -- as if the cast and director felt the same way.

Not the best film that Hedy Lamarr has been in, but certainly another chance to enjoy this incredibly beautiful and talented actress. She made this semi-documentary film noir after Samson and Delilah. Supposedly, she got paid some big bucks as she was a hot property at the time.

The story takes place in pre-Castro Cuba, but it is basically the same as today. It was a jumping off spot for refugees from Europe who wanted to come to the US. Hedy plays a Buchenwald concentration camp victim that has been bouncing around, is broke, and only 90 miles from her dream.

She runs into an INS agent (John Hodiak) that is working undercover to find out about the smugging into the US. Director Joseph H. Lewis was more familiar with westerns, and you can see that here as Hodiak ends up playing Dudley Do-right and rescuing Nell (Lamarr) from Snidely Whiplash (George Macready, who plays a great cultured bad guy).

A quality story, it's not, but. hey, we came here for Hedy.

Strong production values (including location shooting), good camerawork, and Hedy's beauty boost this immigration-themed programmer. The male lead is earnest but unmagnetic; the villain is above-average. **1/2 out of 4.

In Havana, INS agent John Hodiak goes undercover to foil George Macready human smuggling ring. Unfortunately for all concerned, one of the people looking to get into the US by hook or crook is Hedy Lamarr. Both of the leading men want her.

Director Joseph H. Lewis does what he can with the performances and visuals in this movie, and he does a great deal with DP Paul Vogel in the location shooting. The story, however, has a lot of problems, and the second act, in which Hodiak is tracking down the plane which Macready has chartered to get his illegals into the country, is rather slow. It moves at a snail's pace after it crashes into the Everglades, and never recovers its momentum.

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.

Hedy Lamarr stars in this 1950 film noir which owes a lot to Casablanca then the tried & true usual tropes of the dark genre. A man is killed in New York whose contents found on his person figure into an illegal funneling of foreigners into the States which seems to stem from Cuba where a way station of applicants await their papers from a broker, played by an oily George Macready. Lamaar is one who awaits & is soon joined by John Hodiak, an immigration agent undercover, posing as a compatriot in stasis. Hodiak starts to fall for Lamaar, I mean who wouldn't, as the case reaches its fruition as the authorities chase the bad guys down as they come into the States using a small plane. The makers of Casablanca could've slept easy when this also ran came out which apes the original along the perimeters of the plot but that's about it so if you like to watch a carbon copy play out, hell even something Barb Wire, the Pamela Anderson actioner, w/heavy Casablanca vibes, can be entertaining if you view it w/the right kind of rose colored glasses.

Eddie Muller, in his Noir Alley intro, opined that the film's location shooting in Havana "distracts" from its overall quality. My response would be, "And that quality is what, exactly?" I mean, even Eddie admits that this Joseph H. Lewis offering "doesn't amount to much" because of a "derivative" screenplay. I would add to that the fact that the John Hodiak/Hedy Lamarr pairing has all the sexual chemistry of Mr. And Mrs. Louis B Mayer about to retire for the evening as well as the fact that, while Lamarr in real life had a high IQ, on screen she is strictly of average ability. So, yeah, let's have a travelogue. At least there's something interesting to watch. C plus.