Hold Back the Dawn (1941)
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Director: Mitchell Leisen
Sometimes it is refreshing to watch a film from pre-WWII that is not
surrounded by the unrealistic lifestyle that Hollywood produced pictures tend
to put up on the big screen repeatedly. Hold
Back the Dawn is a picture that takes place just beyond the American border
in Mexico and reminds American citizens that there are still teams of people
clamoring to make their way into this country, and with them come the political
difficulties they face while aspiring to cross border and live out their
American Dream. The feature would nominated for six Academy Awards, but appears
to be glanced over in cinema’s overall account due to much more significant
events that would dominate late 1941.
Hold Back the Dawn is a
romantic drama about an aspiring immigrant stuck at the US/Mexico border who
marries an American woman to simply gain entry into the country, but to comes
to love and care for here. Georges (Charles Boyer), a Romanian born gigolo, arrives
to the Mexican-American boarder and must endure an extensive waiting period
before he can legally immigrant into the country. It is a near torturous
existence while he lodges at a local hotel within sight of the border he
desperately wants to cross, but he learns of a loophole from an old flame, a
fellow “companion,” Anita (Paulette Goddard) who had gained US residency by
marrying an American, and shortly thereafter divorcing him. George zeroes in on
a young, pretty American school teacher, Emmy (Olivia de Havilland), on a day
trip in Mexico, convincing her that they are in love, and marrying within a day
of meeting each other.
Awaiting the four week period before George can claim US residency he
must avoid the local immigration inspector, Hammock (Walter Abel). Georges
spends more time with the naïve Emmy, where his pity for her unsuspecting
innocence sparks within him a sense of affection for her. Jealous for Georges’ love,
Anita reveals Georges’ scheme of using Emmy to his new wife, and despite Emmy
not turning Georges into the Hammock, she does leave him, returning to America
where she suffers a serious car accident. Troubled by the news of Emmy, Georges
illegally enters the country in order to come to her aid, which he knows will
jeopardize his visa status. The authorities track down Georges and deport him
back to Mexico, however with compassion Hammock does not report Georges and
weeks later Georges is given his clearance to cross into America where he see a
waiting Emmy on the other side.
Hold Back the Dawn is a
rather interesting picture to watch from the year 1941, because it contains
aspects of American cinematic storytelling that were very uncommon for its time
period. Firstly the greater whole of the story is told in one giant flashback. Charles
Boyer’s character sneaks onto grounds of Paramount studios and tells his story
to a movie director, who happens to be played by the film’s actual director
Mitchell Leisen. This allows Boyer as Georges to be a narrator in order to aid
in exposition of details that are not necessarily on the screen.
Also the character of Georges is somewhat the antihero for most of the
film. We, as an audience, want Georges to get into America, but he takes the
measure of marrying a naïve American girl, played so innocently by Olivia de
Havilland, to gain what he desires so desperately. Now we are left with the
dilemma of rooting for Georges, but bothered that he is taking advantage of
this sweet woman who surely will have her heartbroken as soon as Georges is an
American citizen. But what makes this story work so well is Georges’ compassion
as it begins to grow an affection towards Emmy making this relationship that
appears on screen blossom into something emotionally tangible for the audience.
Mitchell Leisen directing in this film feels surprisingly contemporary
with his cinematic choices. He ingeniously works the cameras in ways that are
not the simple point-and-shot style that many bland films may produce. Being
the story is told from Georges’ point of view the camera travels with Georges,
sometimes literally following directly behind him down hallways. Even the
editing works in a way that reveals what Georges is thinking or seeing, so the picture
is not always simply laid straight out for the audience, but guides the
audience’s train of thought.
However, Leisen did take his own liberties with the script, editing out
scenes or focusing on certain aspects over others, much to the dismay of
screenwriters Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder. For Wilder, he became so fed
up with directors changing his scripts that he began directing his own works
almost exclusively following this film.
Star Charles Boyer, I feel, shines a bit more here than in his previous
works. His performance comes off as more human than his usual smug French
demeanor had played in the past. In films such as Algiers he was always the suave individual that usually got
everything he wanted so easily, because of his cool confidence and everyone
tended to just like him. Here is he much more human as he is within eyesight of
his dream, but is powerless to achieve it. He still oozes his confidence, even
as Georges becomes broke living out of his hotel room. However, he is still
just a simple Romanian in Mexico wanting to cross the border that does so well
at keeping him from achieving what he wants.
Olivia de Havilland once again performs the innocent beauty that is
naïve to the situation around her. Her performance, much like that of Gone with the Wind, puts her right in
the middle of the plot, You fall in love with her Emmy in a sense that you want
to wrap her up in a blanket and take care of her for the rest of her life,
because she is just so innocent. She is actually the victim of the story, the
pawn in Georges’ scheme, but the audience does not want her to every be
heartbroken, because she so openly loves this man that she does not know only
plans to leave her as soon as he attains what he wants. Her performance is simple
and emotional, garnering her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
The opposite of de Havilland and her character is Paulette Goddard’s
performance as Anita. The very beautiful and bright eyed 31 year-old actress
plays the jealous schemer that gives Georges his idea, but sabotages his
marriage when Anita discovers she is unable to win over Georges’ affection due
to his has growing fondness for Emmy. Goddard plays villain so well. Her looks
and energy make her such an appealing woman, but her jealousy overtakes her so
much so that she becomes a ruthless individual that thinks “if I can’t have
him, then no one can.” Surprisingly, in the end despite Anita remains a gold
digging woman who attains her latest sugar daddy, which somehow seems enduring
about her character as it is Anita’s form of survival.
Hold Back the Dawn would be a
rather good success for Paramount both at the box office and with critics. At
the Academy Awards the feature was nominated six awards including Best Picture.
However in just over two months’ time after the film’s release was the events
of Pearl Harbor that hurdled American entry into World War II and somehow, for
that period, the movies just were not as important as they once seemed.
If there is any takeaway from Hold
Back the Dawn it would be that is was one of the final films penned by
Billy Wilder before he jumped into the director’s chair and grew into one of
the finest filmmakers of the 20th century. I would recommend the
feature as it is innocent yet suggestive, as well as funny yet political. It
captures what it would have been like for an immigrant to enter the United
States before World War II, at least from the Hollywood perspective.
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