Hold Back the Dawn (1941)

Country: USA
Director: Mitchell Leisen
Production Co: Paramount Pictures,Paramount
Genre: Romance
Rating: 7.4/10
Length: 115 mins

Storyline

Romanian gigolo Georges Iscovescu is trying to get into the United States to become a citizen, it the land of opportunity even in his line of work. Because of the visa requirement, he instead travels to Tijuana, Mexico to cross into the States via the land border, not realizing that this situation has its own obstacles, namely the quota system per country, Romanians who have up to an eight year wait. In joining the queue in Tijuana, he ends up at the Hotel Esperanza which houses many of those in his similar situation, some of those others who have their own story in trying to become American citizens. In running into an old colleague he met in Europe, the former Polish-Australian Anita Dixon now divorced US citizen Mrs. Shaughnessy - she a female version of him - he decides to do what she did to become a US citizen: get married to an American, Mr. Shaughnessy who she quickly divorced after getting her citizenship. After a few missteps in finding an American to marry, Georges sets his sights on schoolteacher Emmy Brown, a woman naive in the affairs of the heart, she in Mexico with her class on a field trip. What happens between Georges and Emmy is affected by: the presence of Mr. Hammock, a US immigration inspector who is trying to clamp down on marriages of convenience, they illegal in terms of gaining US citizenship; the presence of Mrs. Shaughnessy, who will do whatever is required to ply her trade with him, the two of them together who she sees as the perfect match in being the same; and Georges' own ideas of what best to do with Emmy.—Huggo