History Film / HoldBackTheDawn

* LoveOverridesTheLaw: The immigration cop, Inspector Hammock, lets Georges off the hook and allows his entry into the USA, having been convinced that he really loves Emmy after all. A pretty generous example, as Georges barreled through the checkpoint and then led Hammock and the cops on a chase all the way to Los Angeles.

* LetOffByTheDetective: The immigration cop, Inspector Hammock, lets Georges off the hook and allows his entry into the USA, having been convinced that he really loves Emmy after all. A pretty generous example, as Georges barreled through the checkpoint and then led Hammock and the cops on a chase all the way to Los Angeles.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* TitleDrop: When putting the full-court press on Emmy, Georges compares them to two trains briefly at the same station, saying "We can't change our course, any more than we can hold back the dawn."

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Emmy is laying down blankets in the back of the car and pretty plainly getting ready for sex. A guilt-stricken Georges says "I had no right to touch her" and fakes a shoulder injury to get out of it.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Emmy is laying down blankets in the back of the car and pretty plainly getting ready for sex. A guilt-stricken George says "I had no right to touch her" and fakes a shoulder injury to get out of it.

* LoveTriangle: George the gigolo, Anita his slutty former lover, and Emmy, his new bride.

George Iscovescu (Boyer) is a Romanian dancer, but really a gigolo. George used to make a good living romancing the rich ladies of the European jet set, but when a little thing called UsefulNotes/WorldWarII brought an end to that, George emigrated to the Americas. He finds himself stuck in a Mexican border town, unable to enter the United States for at least five years due to a very limited quota for Romanians, with no prospects, running up debt.

Enter Anita (Goddard), George's old dance partner from the European circuit, who has made a new life for herself as a gold digger. Anita, who is Australian, reveals to George that she gained entry into the United States by marrying a gullible American, whom she dumped as soon as she got a green card. She suggests that he do the same, and that the two of them can start a new life together after George gains entry to the USA and dumps his wife. George sets out to find a mark among the American tourists in the town and eventually meets Emmy Brown (de Havilland), a naive schoolteacher.

Getting Emmy to marry him is quick work for George. Unsurprisingly, while sitting out his four-week wait he falls in love for real with the beautiful, good-hearted Emmy. Also unsurprisingly, Anita is unwilling to be dumped.

* AnImmigrantsTale: Not just George but other immigrants in limbo at the Hotel Esperanza, like a French barber as well as a German writer and his family. Mrs. Kurtz is determined that her baby will be born an American. When she goes into labor before the papers have come, she staggers across the border into Inspector Hammock's office, and has the baby there.

* CitizenshipMarriage: The whole plot, as George decides to follow Anita's example in order to gain entry to the United States.
* ContrivedCoincidence: Old lovers and dance partners George and Anita just happen to bump into each other years later, in a sleepy little border town on a different continent.
* CreatorCameo: Director Mitchell Leisen plays director Dwight Saxon. The film has George interrupting Leisen/Saxon on the set of a real Mitchell Leisen movie, ''Film/IWantedWings''.

* DrivenToSuicide: George winds up with a room at the Hotel Esperanza after its previous occupant, a German named Vexler, hangs himself.
* DrivingADesk: Throughout George and Emmy's honeymoon road trip; not quite as bad as most examples.

* FourthDateMarriage: What George is pressing for, and he gets it, marrying Emmy after a few hours acquaintance.
* FramingDevice: George looks up an old casual acquaintance of his, film director Dwight Saxon, and tells him the whole story in a series of flashbacks.

* GoldDigger: Both George and Anita used to do this. Anita remains utterly unashamed about it, telling the inspector in the last scene that she has ensnared a Swedish businessman who doesn't speak a word of English and has $340,000 in the bank.
* GoodSmokingEvilSmoking: Emmy doesn't smoke and she tells George he should quit. On the other hand, Anita the vixen lights up a cigarette as she tells Emmy the unpleasant truth about George.

* LetOffByTheDetective: The immigration cop, Inspector Hammock, lets George off the hook and allows his entry into the USA, having been convinced that he really loves Emmy after all. A pretty generous example, as George barreled through the checkpoint and then led Hammock and the cops on a chase all the way to Los Angeles.

* SexyDiscretionShot: The film cuts away as a towel-clad Emmy and George embrace on the beach.

* StaggeredZoom: Done to show Emmy's school bus has appeared in town again, at a very bad time for George, as he's in the company of his girlfriend Anita as well as a U.S. immigration official.
* TitleDrop: When putting the full-court press on Emmy, George compares them to two trains briefly at the same station, saying "We can't change our course, any more than we can hold back the dawn."

''Hold Back the Dawn'' is a 1941 film directed by Creator/MitchellLeisen, co-written by Charles Brackett and Creator/BillyWilder, starring Charles Boyer, Creator/OliviaDeHavilland, and Creator/PauletteGoddard.

''Hold Back the Dawn'' is a 1941 film directed by Creator/MitchellLeisen, co-written by Charles Brackett and Creator/BillyWilder, starring Charles Boyer, Creator/OliviaDeHavilland, and Paulette Goddard.

''Hold Back the Dawn'' is a 1941 film directed by Mitchell Leisen, co-written by Charles Brackett and Creator/BillyWilder, starring Charles Boyer, Creator/OliviaDeHavilland, and Paulette Goddard.

* CreatorCameo: Director Mitchell Leisen plays director Dwight Saxon. The film has George interrupting Leisen/Saxon on the set of a real Mitchell Leisen movie, ''I Wanted Wings''.

* TheCameo: Creator/VeronicaLake and Brian Donlevy, as actors on the set of an actual movie, ''I Wanted Wings'' (see CreatorCameo below).

* TheCameo: Veronica Lake and Brian Donlevy, as actors on the set of an actual movie, ''I Wanted Wings'' (see CreatorCameo below).

* AnImmigrantsTale: Not just George but other immigrants in limbo at the Hotel Esperanza, like a French barber as well as a German writer and his family.

* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: American Paulette Goddard playing an Australian.

* HollywoodLaw: A French immigrant gains entry to the USA when he is proved to be a descendant of the Marquis de Lafayette. The Marquis did really receive honorary citizenship (as did UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill), but honorary citizenship is not transferable to one's descendants.

* FramingDevice: George looks up an old casual acquaintance of his, film director Dwight Saxon, and tells him the whole story in a series of flashbacks.

* CitizenshipMarriage: The whole plot, as George decides to follow Anita's example in order to gain entry to the United States.