A thriller, set in Havana and Florida, about an undercover immigration detective (John Hodiak) attempting to break up an alien smuggling ring, A Lady Without a Passport was made as a second-line MGM star vehicle for the glamorous Hedy Lamarr. It contains a climactic chase through the Everglades (Lewis has a penchant for swamp chases), and inspired Richard Thompson to write:
“Lewis seems instinctively to cast his film in the form of hunter-hunted chases... Lady Without a Passport is such a film, memorable for its heavy atmosphere of rancid romanticism overlaying sordid intrigue. In this Hodiak is a cop assigned to arrest Lamarr; he meets her for the first time and writes out his letter of resignation, giving as his reason, ‘I am in love.'”