Forbidden Passage is a 1941 short film (21 minutes) directed by Fred Zinnemann.
It is an installment of MGM's "Crime Does Not Pay" series of shorts, which were short crime dramas dressed up as true-crime stories. In this one the "MGM Reporter" (an actor) introduces a cop (another actor), per the standard formula. This episode deals with human trafficking. Police in Florida make a terrible discovery: several bodies in a cove, trussed up in sacks, weighted down with chains. The cops observe that the victims are of several different ethnicities and deduce that they were the victims of human traffickers, who were smuggling them in the country and dumped them overboard when the authorities got too close.
One of the victims is ID'd and traced to Lisbon, Portugal. Cut to Lisbon and one Otto Kestler, who has applied for asylum in the United States where his family is already waiting. The Lisbon consul approves his application but says he'll have to wait a year. Desperate to get to America and unable to get a Portuguese work permit, Kestler leaps at an offer from a staffer at the consulate, who says he can get Kestler into America...for a price.
Tropes:
- Bad Guy Bar: The bar is clearly a dive, with sailors meeting prostitutes, and there's a human trafficking organization operating out of the back.
- Based on a Great Big Lie: As with most films in the "Crime Does Not Pay" series, this is presented as a dramatization of a true story, with the Crime Reporter going so far as to say "fictional names were used." In reality, of course, the whole story was made up.
- Bittersweet Ending: The trafficking ring is smashed, but poor Kestler is still drowned in a Florida bay.
- Eiffel Tower Effect: How to show that Kestler's family is in New York? A shot of the Statue of Liberty, of course.
- Face Framed in Shadow: The weaselly consulate guy is framed this way as he makes the call about Otto Kestler wanting to get to the United States.
- Fatal Family Photo: Kestler pulls out a photo of his wife and daughter while in the cargo hold of the ship. He, naturally, is the one person that gets chucked overboard and drowned before the immigration cops find the secret compartment. At the end, the Fatal Family Photo is seen floating in the bilge water.
- Framing Device: As with all shorts in the "Crime Does Not Pay" series, it opens with a fake reporter introducing a fake law enforcement official who talks about the crime. The story then unspools from there.
- Gave Up Too Soon: After Kestler left, a spot opened up for him to come to the United States legally, but the Lisbon consulate is unable to find him.
- Human Traffickers: A particularly vicious gang of traffickers which does not hesitate to drown their passengers in the sea if they think there's a chance they might get caught. The film naturally never stops to consider that the root cause behind tragedies like this was the draconian immigration restrictions in the United States, even during the humanitarian crisis that was World War II.
- Obsessive-Compulsive Barkeeping: When Kestler enters the sleazy bar in Belize, the bartender is not building a model train or playing chess or juggling. No, he's cleaning a glass.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: There's an Asian man among the passengers on the smuggling ship. One of the sailors calls him "slant-eyes."
- Trust Password: Kestler enters the bar and orders white wine, specifically a Riesling. This is the password identifying him as their passenger in the illegal immigration scheme.
