Illegal Entry (1949) DVD-R

Starring Howard Duff, Marta Toren, Paul Stewart, Tom Tully, George Brent
Directed by Frederick De Cordova

Print: black/white
Runtime: 84 min.
Genre: drama
Print Quality: B

Long before he became producer/director of The Tonight Show, Fred
DeCordova helmed the Universal meller Illegal Entry. Howard Duff, who
later worked with DeCordova on the TV series Mr. Adams and Eve, stars
as Bert Powers, an undercover agent for the U.S. Department of
Immigration. While attempting to bring a vicious gang of alien smugglers
to justice, Powers falls in love with Anna Duvak (Marta Toren), a gang
member who is Not What She Seems. The film leaves no cliché unturned,
not even the familiar scene wherein the airborne smugglers dispose of
their human cargo by way of a handy lever which causes the bottom of
the plane's passenger section to drop out. Illegal Entry is staged in
semi-documentary fashion, maintaining the then-prevalent tradition of
such popular films as House on 92nd Street and Call Northside 777.