Forged Passport (1939) User Reviews

An enjoyable B...but far from a must-see picture.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 9 June 2022]

"Forged Passport" is a B-movie, which you can tell by its short running time (about an hour) as well as its use of mostly second-tier actors. However, despite being a B from Republic Studios, the film isn't bad at all...entertaining and decent as a time-passer.

Paul Kelly* plays a Border Patrol agent. He's great at his job, but he's also a hothead and a bit on the dumb side. As a result, he eventually gets himself fired. But instead of going away and licking his wounds, he decides to work undercover and try to figure out who killed his partner and who is behind all the smuggling. On hand for comic relief is Billy Gilbert, who is, as you'd suspect, quite enjoyable.

While the identity of the mystery man behind all the crime is way too easy to guess, the film is breezy and entertaining. Kelly is quite good and its interesting to see him as the leading man...something he really didn't get to do in A-pictures.

*I did find it odd to see Kelly playing a lawman, as in real life Kelly had spent time in prison for manslaughter. Apparently, the court and Hollywood thought he was either innocent or there were extenuating circumstances, as after he was released (after a relatively short sentence), he went right back to work in films.

Action comedy from the 30's

[happytrigger-64-390517 · 5/10 · 5 April 2021]

Forged Passport was sleeping on my "movies to watch" shelf since a long time. That shelf is at last nearly empty, and I discovered some treasures like Five by Arch Oboler.

This movie directed by John Auer is certainly not a pleasant surprise, it's full of lousy comic scenes with lousy characters, like Mendoza played by exasperating Billy Gilbert. Paul Kelly is ok, especially in a few fight scenes. Camera work is not bad, often using depth field, travelings and fast editing. John Auer has always been a B director, maybe his best title is City that never sleeps.

You'll need aspirin to recover from Billy Gilbert's performance.

[mark.waltz · 3/10 · 10 May 2020]

Overly forced comedy, mediocre songs and a rather uninteresting plot are combined together to make a unmemorable Republic B picture dealing with the smuggling of illegals. Paul Kelly, Lyle Talbot and June Lang are the stars of this programmer which even at just over an hour had me checking the time. Stereotypical characters and trite dialogue aren't enough to access memorable in any circumstance, and the comical character played by Billy Gilbert just becomes obnoxious and adds on precious minutes to a film that seems endless every time he appears. With war looming in Europe, this could have been an interesting film that explained why illegal entry into the country was an important issue to prevent. The print I saw was actually 8 minutes shorter (obviously the edited for television version) than the official running time, yet it seemed even longer.

Only a rare gem, nothing else

[searchanddestroy-1 · 8 December 2013]

John H Auer made many movies still hard to find. Check on IMDb and you'll be surprised by all the items not commented - yet...This one makes no exception. I got it from a 16mm print, quite good; I never argue about print quality. It's a rare gem and we are supposed to accept it as it is. Period.

The topic has already been told above. Really nothing exceptional here, a mix up of comedy, crime, a scheme very usual in those days, late thirties, early forties. I am not in love with this kind of stuff. It is sometimes painful for me to support the viewings. But, as I usually say, those films are not charmless. There will always be movie buffs to purchase them. And this is a good thing. Those nearly lost gems deserve to be discovered. Everything else remains only my own opinion.