disgusting, overrated, pointless

it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

When several illegal Mexican workers are murdered at the border of Mexico and United States by a gang of Coyotes, the Mexican and American federal agents Pablo Rodriguez (Ricardo Montalban) and Jack Bearnes (George Murphy) are assigned to work infiltrated in the group of Mexican farm workers that are waiting for a chance to work in southern California. Pablo poses of bracero while Jack poses of a dealer of permits to work in the United State to discover the leaders that exploit the laborers. They stumble upon the rancher Owen Parkson (Howard Da Silva) and they find he is the ringleader. But soon they are in danger and do not have means to communicate with their contacts. What will happen to Jack and Pablo?"Border Incident" is a 1949 film about farm workers smuggling through the United States-Mexico border in a period of The Bracero Program. This illegal crossing of the border followed by the exploitation of the laborers make the fortune of the rancher Parkson in the story. The scene with Jack Bearnes on the field is impressive even in the present days. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Mercado Humano" ("Human Market")

Ricardo Montalban, George Murphy, James Mitchell, and Charles McGraw star in this story about Mexicans who cross the border to California legally (and some illegally) to work and support their family back in Mexico. But, going back to Mexico, they are killed for their meager pay. In doing this, these certain "businessmen" can then get more Mexicans to come and work for them. It's all a racket, where these "businessman" make all the profits, until federal agents of America and Mexico are planted on the inside, who are George Murphy and Ricardo Montalban. George Murphy was mainly a song-and-dance guy in musical comedies of the 1930s and 1940s, but branched out to do other genres with this film, and I may never see him the same way again. Not so much because he was in it, but because of what happens. James Mitchell, who found fame later as "All My Children"'s Palmer Cortlandt, is on hand as a Mexican trying to find work to support his family. The film wraps up with unrelenting and uncompromising violence that does not talk down to its mature viewers. Little children, I should think, should not see this. For good actors in a solid picture directed by Anthony Mann, it's a Border Incident on the bill.

/Border Incident/ is successful both as a tale and as a window into 1949.The drama takes us to unusual places and situations. It has a fine range of characters. Following the number one good guy, we visit Calexico, California, a border town, we follow a truckload of illegal workers, and in their barracks we see them ponder their low pay and abusive treatment. Following the number two good guy, we see the world of deals in fake ids, management of the flow of illegals, and, ta daaa, a ring of thieves that kills illegals returning to Mexico for the wad of bills each has in his pocket.The opening exposition is straightforward, almost pedestrian. Typically 1949. Once the stage is set, "BI" changes from documentary to drama, moving forward like a play.It bothered me that the number one good guy, (Ricardo Montalban), sometimes goes out of character to augment the exposition. Would a government agent, undercover as a bracero, speak up when one of his group needs medical attention? Hardly. Would he be the one to politicize the workers in the bunkhouse? Hardly. More likely he'd keep his head down and his mouth shut. Still, the lines get delivered; the audience gets to hear them. Not ideal, but it works. As a drama I rate it: five stars.As a window on the past, Border Incident is quite fascinating. They didn't have cell phones! Both governments were against the illegal flow of workers! Ah, the good old days. NAFTA had not displaced a flood of subsistence farmers. The Mexican government had not published the infamous "Guide For The Mexican Migrant", the pamphlet which helps one cross illegally (take lots of water) and live in the US inconspicuously (avoid domestic violence -- picture of a man slugging his wife).In 1949, according to BI, US law enforcement officers were honorable people who made an honest effort to do their jobs! Mexican, the same! The cynicism (realism?) of 2009 is not present. Plenty of food for thought in the time travel aspect of Border Incident. Eight stars.Overall, 6 stars.

Provided you can ignore the plot holes here and there in the film, then this is an enjoyable and exciting film. While I noticed that now this film is being marketed in a Film Noir multi-pack by MGM, I really don't think I'd consider this film Noir. It does have many aspects of this, but a story about illegal Mexican migrant workers and the scum who traffic in them is hardly the stuff of Noir, though there is some gritty action and violence that is definitely influenced by this style film.The movie stars George Murphy and Ricardo Montalban. While Murphy never became a huge star, he was pretty good in this movie. However, for Montalban who only occasionally got a chance to act in films that were non-musicals, it was a very welcome role.The film itself is a fairly entertaining and straight forward tale about some scum who smuggle illegal immigrants into America and then use them as slave labor or even kill them when it's no longer convenient to keep them! Because of their brutality, a joint Mexican and American task force is created to infiltrate. Despite the complexity and evil of this gang, two agents (Murphy and Montalban) are sent in with no real backup! And, once Montalban begins his journey into the US an a supposed illegal, Murphy's tailing techniques are incredibly shabby and so he's naturally caught but manages to escape.The rest of the film concerns Montalban as well as a later infiltration by Murphy when he poses as a man who has stolen a large supply of legal identity cards that he attempts to sell to the scum running the gang from the American side of the border. Some of the film is excellent, as Charles McGraw and Howard Da Silva make great heavies (particularly McGraw) and what occurs with Murphy once he's in the gang was quite a surprise. Also, like Noir the film is unflinching and brutal. But unfortunately, several times throughout the film the heroes and their forces didn't seem all that bright and at times the only thing that saved them was the sloppiness of the criminals! Additionally, the narration (particularly at the end) is very heavy-handed and hokey. This isn't a great film but it is exciting and worth a look.PS---While George Murphy wasn't the greatest actor that ever lived and this film doesn't change my opinion of this. However, try reading him IMDb biography--it really is fascinating and has many parallels to Ronald Reagan's.