Forbidden Passage (1941)

• 64%
• 1941
• Crime
• Drama
• Fred Zinnemann
• Addison Richards
• Wolfgang Zilzer
• Hugh Beaumont

The M-G-M Crime Reporter introduces Frank J. Maxwell, Florida District Director of the U.S. Immigration Service, who talks about illegal immigration, and the unscrupulous people and organizations that smuggle in immigrants for a fee, often with deadly results to the immigrants if they become a liability. In one such case, wrapped bodies are found at the bottom a Florida swamp, found to be dumped while the victims were still alive. One victim is identified as Pablo Rivas, a foreigner who had previously lived in the U.S., but was sent back to Portugal where he was placed on a quota waiting list for permanent re-entry. Because the dead were a mixture of different races, Immigration Services believes the smugglers have a Caribbean transit camp used as the direct entry point into the U.S. Meanwhile, Otto Kestler, an Austrian national, is in much the same position as Rivas, he's now on a waiting list for entry to join his family already living in the States. Not willing to wait the year the list seems to be, he decides to pay the exorbitant fee to get smuggled into the U.S. Unless Immigration Services can locate the transit camp and/or the means of smuggling, Kestler may befall the same fate as Rivas if the smugglers run into problems.