Hold Back the Dawn is a 1941 romantic film in which a Romanian gigolo marries an American woman in Mexico in order to gain entry to the United States, but winds up falling in love with her. It stars Charles Boyer, Olivia de Havilland, Paulette Goddard, Victor Francen, Walter Abel, Curt Bois and Rosemary DeCamp.
The movie was adapted by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder from the book by Ketti Frings. It was directed by Mitchell Leisen.
It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Olivia de Havilland), Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture, Best Picture and Best Writing, Screenplay. [1]
Plot
Hold Back the Dawn describes the marriage of Georges Iscovescu (Boyer), a Romanian gigolo searching for a way to enter the United States, and Miss Emmy Brown (de Haviland), an American schoolteacher who meets Iscovescu in a Mexican border town.
The film begins at the Paramount film company in Hollywood, where Iscovescu sneaks into a studio to meet with a director. In terms of chronology, this scene occurs near the end of the story. Iscovescu is fleeing immigration agents after illegally crossing the border to visit Emmy in a Los Angeles hospital. Emmy is Iscovescu's wife at this point, but has suffered life-threatening injuries in a car accident after discovering that he was using her to gain access to the United States and intended to divorce her as soon as possible. However, after seeing Emmy's love and innocence during a romantic honeymoon with her in a small Mexican village, Iscovescu developed a genuine affection for her and sacrificed his own immigration status by visiting her. With his support and encouragement through the night after the accident, she recovered from a near-death condition. In the Paramount studio, Iscovescu offers to sell his and Emmy's story in order to return some money she gave him, before he is sent back to Mexico.
As Iscovescu recounts his story, the film's setting changes to a few weeks earlier, in an unnamed Mexican town on the American border where he waits in the hope of immigrating into the U.S.. He is told that he will have to wait several years, but learns from Anita Dixon (Goddard), who was once his professional dance partner, that he can achieve his goal by marrying an American citizen. Anita loves Georges and wishes to dance with him again in the U.S..
After failing to find a wealthy American woman to lure into marriage on the 4th of July, Georges decides to target Emmy, who is visiting with some students in her class. His romantic overtures are successful, and they marry the next day. Emmy returns a few days later, but immigration inspector Hammock (Abel) appears, hunting for con artists such as Georges. In order to evade Hammock, Georges drives Emmy to a small village, where they participate in romantic traditional rituals for newlyweds. Georges becomes increasingly bothered by his conscience as he sees how happy and unsuspecting Emmy is.
Meanwhile, Hammock learns of their marriage. Back in the border town, Georges tells Anita he is not ready to divorce Emmy right away, prompting Anita to tell Emmy about Georges's past and his plans. However, when Hammock questions Emmy, she protects Georges by claiming that she trusts him and she knew about his past all along. Emma leaves Georges, but crashes her car while driving back to her California home, leading to the scene in the hospital after Georges hears of her accident and drives there.
Sometime later, Hammock finds Georges in the border town. Emmy has forgiven George, and Hammock decided not to report Georges's border crossing. Georges sees Emmy happily waving to him from across the border and goes to meet her.
In addition to the story of Georges and Emmy, the film portrays other people struggling to enter the U.S.. The two main examples are a pregnant woman who sneaks across the border to give birth, so that her child will be an American citizen, and the woman's husband, who discovers that he is already a U.S. citizen because of his family ties.
Cast
Adaptations to Other Media
Hold Back the Dawn was adapted as a radio play on the November 10, 1941 episode of Lux Radio Theater with Charles Boyer, Paulette Goddard and Susan Hayward, again on the February 8, 1943 episode of The Screen Guild Theater with Charles Boyer and Susan Hayward, the July 31, 1946 episode of Academy Award Theater starring Olivia de Havilland and Jean Pierre Aumont, the May 31, 1948 episode of Screen Guild Theater with Charles Boyer and Ida Lupino, the May 14, 1949 episode of Screen Director's Playhouse with Boyer and Vanessa Brown, the May 4, 1950 episode of Screen Guild Theater with de Havilland and Boyer and the June 15, 1952 Screen Guild Theater with Barbara Stanwyck and Jean Pierre Aumont
References
External links
