“Perhaps the loveliest of Lewis' neglected works, A Lady Without Passport might have been an ideal Samuel Fuller project; it is about a muscle-headed undercover agent out to smash an alien-smuggling ring. The community of corruption in Havana, refugees exploited by unscrupulous ‘importers' has the kind of tepid atmosphere in which Fuller might exult. Lewis captures the sweat, but his characters melt when exposed to protracted emotion. The hard-boiled agent begins to empathize deeply with the plight of the displaced persons, and when he meets concentration camp victim Hedy Lamarr, now driven to an ignoble existence, he finds himself contracting a serious case of romantic love. No Fuller character would suddenly pull up short and write out his resignation, giving as his reason the simple declaration: ‘I am in love.'
“Lewis braves his way through the stickier aspects of the plot with a similar deadpan earnestness that ends up far more moving than laughable... (His) virtuosity is in some ways more in evidence here than in Gun Crazy. The long-take opening is even more astounding than its counterpart in the earlier film... Throughout Lewis exhibits an uncanny ability to make his long shots count as if they were close-ups, selecting revealing angles and editing in long shots where reaction shots would generally be. Limber camera movements set up startling offhanded shots, as he tracks back to position for a telling cut or dollies in closer to get inside a café. Above all, Lewis' command of interlocked point-of-view shots creates complexity where there might otherwise be artiness... Some of the silly intrigue is nonetheless complicated and Lewis' stress on the burgeoning love affair between Hodiak and Lamarr makes it all seem very important. Lewis doesn't use his love interest as an excuse to slough off the plotting; instead, he elucidates the story line with methodical visual organization and then charges it with the edgy softness of the distrustful, vulnerable lovers.” --Myron Meisel, “Kings of the Bs”