"Hold Back the Dawn" is the kind of film that would have been labeled as a "women's picture" back in 1941, the year of release. I hate that term, though, because it condescendingly assumes that there's nothing in a movie like this for men to enjoy. On the contrary, there's plenty to enjoy for everyone, including a story that has taken on renewed urgency and relevancy considering the debate swirling around illegal immigration at this moment in our country.Charles Boyer plays a playboy fleeing war-torn Europe and stranded in Mexico awaiting an opportunity to get into America. Olivia de Havilland plays a plain Jane school teacher who falls for his false claims of love and accepts his proposal of marriage, not realizing that he's only using her to get into the country. But of course there wouldn't be a movie if he didn't eventually fall in love with her for real and have compunction about his actions. It's interesting to see how immigration was handled in 1941, and how lax border security was. The film is also sympathetic to the plights of those trying to gain entry, something many people now would benefit from being reminded of.Poor de Havilland was always getting cast as dowdy, naive spinsters, which is a shame given how luminous she can be as an actress. No matter. Let the Oscar nomination she received for this film be her consolation. The film was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Screenplay (penned by famous screenwriting team Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder), Best Art Direction (B&W), Best Cinematography (B&W), and Best Dramatic Score, a puzzling nomination since the film's only music is that heard during the opening and end credits.Grade: B+

This movie was nominated for six Oscars including, Best Picture, Best Actress (de Havilland). This is the movie that supposedly started De Havilland's life-long feud with her sister, Joan Fontaine, who in 1941, ran against her and won for Best Actress in Hitchcock's Suspicion (1941), which had been proceeded, the previous year for a Best Actress nomination in Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940), and followed by a nomination in 1944 for The Constant Nymph (1943). One might well imagine that the sisters were in constant competition during the 40s. Hold Back the Dawn (1941) is a nicely told romance about a young and vulnerable young school teacher, Emmy (Olivia de Havilland), with a busload of kids, traveling in a Mexican border town during an Independence Day side trip. However, on the Mexican side of the border, there are several European refugees desperately trying to enter the US, no doubt because of the unrest in Europe at the time. While watching this movie, released before the Pearl Harbour Attack on the US, it is probably helpful to remember that Hollywood was not yet fully engaged with "going to war," even though Billy Wilder was one of the writers of the screen play for the movie. So, European refugees waited--at the Hotel Espiranza--to get their green cards (for legally crossing the border into the US). Two of these waiters were a dance team, an Austrian woman, Anita Dixon (Paulette Goddard), and her former professional dance partner, Romanian Georges Iscovescu (Charles Boyer). Goddard meets Boyer in this border town to tell him how she was able to get her green card in record time by marrying an American and then divorcing him after successfully making it into America. Anita encourages George to do the same thing by taking advantage of the American school teacher's obvious attraction to him. He starts down this path, but with unsuspected results. ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''Goddard makes an excellent vixen in this movie. One wonders---as we see scenes with her and de Havilland here---how well she would have played Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind opposite de Havilland, since she was one of many women who did the screen test for the part.

A quick watch at the first 20 minutes makes you think this one shouldn't be close; oily smooth operator Charles Boyer, a continental gigolo and dancer vs small town schoolmarm Olivia De Havilland. Blowout. Game over. But Hollywood has a way of evening the sides with a first class script and a great storyline.As noted, Boyer is trying to enter the US via Mexico just prior to WW II. In those days it was a long wait - about 6-8 years, he was told. What to do? He discovers he can get in almost immediately as the spouse of a US citizen, and he finds one in sitting duck De Havilland, who is conducting a class trip south of the border. There are several side stories attendant to this one, but they fade into the background of this intensely dramatic love story of deceit and redemption. Boyer always came across to me just as he does here, a conniver and a liar ("Gaslight", "All This And Heaven Too") and he was pitch perfect in this one. Olivia De Havilland, vulnerable and sensitive as always, got an AA nom for her work here - the film earned 6 AA nominations in all.Immigration problems seem like something from the middle ages nowadays, when there seems to be a turnstile at the border. This gives the picture a very dated feel. Some, like myself, may not care for the artificial ending but the two principals endow this movie with loads of heart and make it a winner. Too bad you can't see it, unless you find a DVD pirate and buy a copy.

I voted this film 6/10 and saw it with a mixture of enjoyment and disappointment, so felt rather ambivalent about it.First the enjoyment, my prime purpose was to see the beautiful Paulette Goddard (who was about second in the running to play "Scarlet O'Hara" in 1939 - she did have a passing resemblance to Viv.)There were good location beach shots on the Mexican border with the USA and environs of Los Angeles.The studio got away from the claustrophobic 100% studio scenes which for reason of economy were often prevalent in Hollywood at the time.The screenplay had occasional flashes of intelligence in its writing and the scriptwriter remembered to add a line that sea water had to be flushed out of the car's cooling system (which I thought at the time was stupid when Charles Boyer is seen to put it into the car's radiator when the engine overheats).Now for the criticisms, first the dreadful stock interpretations and racist stereotype portrayals of Mexicans (and other foreign nationals) as rather childlike, indolent and rather stupid.I notice that even humble Mexicans doing manual jobs in US films always speak enough English to make themselves understood.Conversely how many American characters in US financed films are seen conversing in Spanish to Mexicans on their home soil?As I am married to a retired 63 year old school teacher, I can assure IMDb.com readers that no single teacher would be permitted to go on a school trip abroad especially without a TA to help.Teachers, far from the irritating stereotypes portrayed by film producers, are usually worldly characters and would be very unlikely to fall for the glib charms of a gigolo.They are kept busy doing lesson planning, meeting Government targets and other bureaucratic requirements,They certainly would not have enough time supervising a school trip to engage in personal romantic dalliances.Just interview any modern school teacher!I did not believe in Olivia de Havilland's character, especially the sickly sentimental final scene when she speaks to the immigration officer expunging all the moral guilt from Charles Boyer.Nevertheless my retired school teacher wife was engrossed throughout the film so I suppose for her it was mere escapism.P.S. she knows about my weakness for beautiful raven haired 1940s film actresses!