Erwachen in der Dämmerung (1941)

Erwachen in der Dämmerung: Directed by Mitchell Leisen. With Charles Boyer, Olivia de Havilland, Paulette Goddard, Victor Francen. Stopped in Mexico by U.S. Immigration, Georges Iscovescu hopes to get into the country by marrying a citizen.

“This movie was nominated for six Oscars including, Best Picture, Best Actress (de Havilland). This is the movie that supposedly started De Havillandu0026#39;s life-long feud with her sister, Joan Fontaine, who in 1941, ran against her and won for Best Actress in Hitchcocku0026#39;s Suspicion (1941), which had been proceeded, the previous year for a Best Actress nomination in Hitchcocku0026#39;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. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHold 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. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhile 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 u0026quot;going to war,u0026quot; even though Billy Wilder was one of the writers of the screen play for the movie. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSo, 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 teacheru0026#39;s obvious attraction to him. He starts down this path, but with unsuspected results. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u0026#39;u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eGoddard 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 Ou0026#39;Hara in Gone with the Wind opposite de Havilland, since she was one of many women who did the screen test for the part.”