Lloyd Bridges smuggles humans for cash in this 1956 poverty row shocker with a title that aged like milk.
Former Coastguardsmen Jim Benson is about to lose his boat when a couple approaches him for a fishing charter. Jim departs just ahead of the Sherrif with drunken Shanks, and his companion Sally (Gates). Shanks takes off into a small Mexican village after a fight with Jim, stranding both Sally and him with no money. Two local men hear of Jim's plight, and offer him money to smuggle a batch of illegal aliens, called Wetbacks, into the U.S. He agrees but is blackmailed into continuing to run the smuggling operation. Afraid, Jim decides to make a run for it, but someone close to him reveals themselves as a US Immigration agent and asks him to assist them in shutting down the smugglers for good.
Acting
Lloyd Bridges commits harder than this material deserves.
Production
Shot on location in California doubling for Mexico with zero budget shame.
Director
Hank McCune
Lloyd Bridges
Jim Benson
Nancy Gates
Sally Parker
Barton MacLane
Karl Shanks
John Hoyt
Steve Bodine
Harold Peary
Juan Ortega
Nacho Galindo
Alfonso
Robert Keys
Reeser
Salvador Baguez
Mexican Policeman
Jose Gonzales-Gonzales
Wetback
Louis Jean Heydt
Coast Guard Comdr. Randall
Roy Gordon
Hoppy
I. Stanford Jolley
Fred
Wally Cassell
Coast Guard lieutenant
Gene Roth
Truck Thug
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released during Operation Wetback (1954), a brutal federal deportation campaign; the title wasn't edgy, it was government policy.
Harold Peary, who plays Juan Ortega, was famous as radio's The Great Gildersleeve—slumming in exploitation films for quick cash.
US
