Product Details

• Actors: Morris Ankrum, Raymond Burr, Donald Diamond, Nacho Galindo, Pepe Hern
• Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Alpha Video
• DVD Release Date: October 21, 2003
• Run Time: 88 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000C8AVB
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #77,654 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very enjoyable, April 10, 2005

By	Coronet Blue (California) - See all my reviews

Borderline is a fun, early 50s crime drama, played with some humor. The chase across Mexico plotline is similar to Robert Mitchum's The Big Steal.

In addition to moving along nicely, Borderline has three other special qualities. First, as always, Claire Trevor is great. Second, you get to see Fred McMurray and Raymond Burr play bad guys and third, this seems to be one of the only oldies.com DVDs with good quality.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars You two work very well together, April 25, 2004

By	Steven Hellerstedt "SH" - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Madeleine Haley (Claire Trevor) is an ambitious member of the Los Angeles Police Department. When the chief calls for a "tawdry dame" to infiltrate Pete Ritchie's (Raymond Burr) drug trafficking operations she pushes her way through a wall of male shoulders and lands the assignment.
Ritchie operates out of Mexico, and Madeleine contrives to throw herself at him until she sticks. Before she has a chance to let out a breath and settle into moll-dom Johnny McEvoy (Fred MacMurray) breaks in on the scene, manages to find out when "the stuff" is hitting the docks, and kidnaps Madeleine, presumably for insurance against the wrath of Ritchie.
Without giving anything away, McEvoy has a few secrets of his own, which he is able to keep from Madeleine but which the viewer is privy to early on. After Madeleine's abduction this becomes a chase movie. McEvoy and Madeleine drive north, away from Ritchie and towards customers for their "stuff." Of course, Madeleine intends to turn McEvoy over to the authorities as soon as they hit the border, so she'd better not fall for him.
MacMurray and Trevor have good chemistry together. A few of their scenes sparkle, and they're convincing as people who are trying not to believe the worst of each other. Raymond Burr is excellently sinister as the white suited bad guy. This is one menacing dude.
I've tried to understand why this one is so obscure. Good cast, nifty mistaken identity issues, interesting minor characters. BORDERLINE has a lot going for it, and I'll bet you not one in a hundred film buffs have ever heard of it, much less seen it.
Maybe it's because it doesn't quite know what it wants to be - it's kind of film noir, kind of a chase flick, kind of a light romantic comedy. Burr's character is menacing enough, but the director (William A. Seiter) never takes it to the next step. The scenes where MacMurray and Trevor are threatened by him are defused too quickly. Burr's last scene feels like the end of the movie, and it's an anti-climatic one, at that. By then the real danger is past. Maybe if the MacMurray character had been given a hard, inaccessible inner core (like Walter Neff in DOUBLE INDEMNITY, for example) we wouldn't find this one in the bargain bin at the used book store.
If not terribly memorable, BORDERLINE is entertaining enough. The cast is much better than the material they've been given.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Genre Challenged But Good, May 16, 2006

By	Buster49 (Utica, NY) - See all my reviews

"Borderline" doesn't know what it wants to be....it's a collision of genres, comedy and police drama with the lighter side dominating. Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. I didn't once look at my watch. The humorous lines are genuinely funny especially from Claire Trevor. There are little nuances that add so much to a scene. Without delivering a spoiler, there's a scene where MacMurray and Trevor are at the house of the local sheriff. The bit with the sheriff's daughter lends a nice touch of humor to an otherwise functional scene. There are a lot of these nuances either in action or dialogue throughout the movie. I would say that if you are looking for a good crime drama from this era, you might be disappointed. If however you go into the movie knowing it's not typical of the genre, you should be able to meet it on its own terms and have fun. I do recommend this film.