A Lady without Passport
| Program section: | Retrospective: Joseph H. Lewis |
|---|---|
| Directed by: | Joseph H. Lewis |
| Year: | 1950 |
| Country: | USA |
| Length: | 74 min. |
| Cast: | Hedy Lamarr, John Hodiak, James Craig, George Macready, Steven Geray and others. |
Screening:
- 21. 8. 2026 | 09:45 - LoGyn Hall (castle - western room) / CZ subs /
- 22. 8. 2026 | 16:30 - LoGyn (castle - western room) / CZ subs /
Production: Loew’s, MGM
Script/Based on: Howard Dimsdale, Cyril Hume, Lawrence Taylor
Director of Photography: Paul Vogel
Score: David Raksin
One of Joseph H. Lewis’s most intriguing attempts to surpass his brilliant film Gun Crazy is his next work, the film noir A Lady Without Passport, which references its more famous predecessor several times – most clearly in the final sequence set in the Florida swamps. The film follows an undercover American agent’s efforts to break up a gang of smugglers operating in Cuba. During this mission, the agent falls in love with a refugee who desperately seeks asylum in the United States. Standing in their way, however, is a dangerous smuggling boss who has no intention of giving up without a fight. Other film noirs from the same period feature similar plots, such as Anthony Mann’s Border Incident (1949) and Elia Kazan’s Panic in the Streets (1950). While these filmmakers tended toward realism and a documentary style in their treatment of the smuggling theme, Lewis took the opposite approach – his film is visually highly stylized, at times even expressionistic and surreal. (mh)
