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Hard to believe this so-called comedy actually generated some enthusiastic reviews. I assume those reviewers are related in some way , who-though apparently talented-are completely stranded by an embarrassingly bad script. The entire project is random, haphazard and clueless-just bad and depressing. No laughs here, except at anyone who put time or money into it. Stopped watching on Amazon Prime halfway through, then had to check IMDB to see who was involved in this junk. The cast list was so large (and so few actors had been on the screen so far) that I had to resume watching-out of curiosity. It got busier, for sure, as well as jaw-droopingly worse. Some individual scenes are amusing-the golfing drug dealers' interaction with a golf course flunky, for example-but nothing connects into an effective comic narrative. Really, really bad.

As a huge fan of Budd Boetticher's Randolph Scott westerns, I really looked forward to this 1956 thriller. Though it certainly held my attention, the movie was a disappointment. The tension it managed to create early on as Wendell Corey escapes from a prison trustee farm really went slack--done in by a lousy script. Boetticher keeps things moving, helped immensely by Lucien Ballard's terrific black-and-white camera work. But I don't get the feeling the director was very interested, aside from the scenes focusing on Corey. Other reviewers have rightly praised the scary, yet oddly sympathetic, character that Corey creates here. It's just too bad the script was so perfunctory. Rhonda Fleming seems right as police detective Joseph Cotten's wife, Lila, but her role is so poorly conceived (and she becomes so annoying), that I lost all interest and sympathy for her. The other big negative is Joseph Cotten, at 50+, too old for the police detective. Even worse, you can't watch him without seeing Joseph Cotten; he doesn't create a character and his movements seem all wrong as a cop. Great 1950's LA locales, though. And worth catching for Corey's performance.

"Borderline" was a big disappointment, given the expectations I had from the MacMurray-Trevor star duo. They played their roles gamely in this awkwardly scripted, boringly directed melodrama (with light comedy overtones). If you forget about the tedious, poorly motivated plot line, there are a few enjoyably light and playful scenes between the two stars (both of whom look great, especially Trevor). They have good chemistry, and the inevitable romance that interferes with their respective drug enforcement chores (only because each believes the other is a criminal), works, despite the lazy script development. The romance works so well, in fact, that the plot demand that MacMurray turn Trevor in seems pretty unbelievable.

On a minor level, "Borderline" is interesting for its mid-20th century Hollywood depiction of Mexico and Mexicans. Lots of stereotyping, primarily for questionable comic effect. I disagree with IMDb's characterization of speaking "Mexican" as a goof. It struck me as intentional. That's the way some people talked then (and the way some people still do).