The US-Mexico Border in American Cold War Film ─ Romance, Revolution, and Regulation

The 1950s saw perhaps the largest number of Hollywood films set on and around the US-Mexico border than any other period in the twentieth century. Many of these films engaged with cold war politics as they explored the relationship between the US and Mexico through ideas of romance, revolution, and regulation. With an analysis of Cold War Era films including Border Incident, Where Danger Lives, and Touch of Evil, Stephanie Fuller illustrates how cinema across genres developed an understanding of what the US-Mexico border meant within the American cultural imaginary and the ways in which it worked to produce the border. Fuller illustrates how a particular cinematic location provided a new way of investigating cultural politics which challenged existing frameworks.

Stephanie Fuller received her PhD in film studies at the University of East Anglia, UK and her MA film studies with distinction from University College London, UK. Her work has been published in the Journal of Popular Film and Television and has been accepted for publication in the Journal of American Studies. Her research interests include Hollywood cinema, transnational media, cultural geography, urban studies and Mexican cinema.