Strange Cargo (1940)

Sorry, this movie sucks

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

This is an uncomfortable Film to endure. It has a storyline that ventures from prison escape, to jungle trek, to slutty, wet romance, to Religious Allegory with transitions that are not at all smooth. The Star Power here is on hand to help through the deep concerns with playful bickering and cynical indignation.In fact, it is a wonder this thing got made at all. What with its, hardly ever filmed heavy handed, Christ analogies the Studio took a chance here at alienating at the least and angering at most many ticket buyers and Social groups. There is a deep Philosophical concern in this otherwise routine Adventure that won't be found in the usual escapism.It can be quite impressive in its glowing representation of a Saviour that is straight out of the New Testament and placed in the middle of Street Walkers, Murderers, and Thieves in a Jungle setting. There is a Supernatural feel among raw Nature and its handling of redemption is always within a setting of Angelic reflection and soft spoken words.This Movie will be a matter of taste for most as it can be seen as overdone and dense, melodramatic and melancholy. But it cannot be denied as a truly offbeat affair and for those seeking something unusual from the usual Star and Studio System, this is it.

The Strange Cargo referred to in the title is in the person of Ian Hunter who is a mysterious other world convict who comes upon a group of them planning to escape from Devil's Island. It's a strange film, Strange Cargo with Clark Gable and Joan Crawford in the very last of eight films they were paired in by MGM.Crawford dusts off her Sadie Thompson role for her character here. Even with the Code firmly in place it's rather obvious that Crawford is a working girl. She's free, but stranded on that notorious convict island. Gable is essentially the same cynical tough guy he played in so many MGM features at that time.Ian Hunter is the mysterious stranger among them. These aren't a group of choir boys he comes among. Yet one by one as they die he brings a peace that passeth all understanding as the Good Book says. The escapees all don't die, but all but one come under his influence.I'm surprised that TCM did choose this one for its theme this June of gays in the cinema. Prison films even during the days of the Code were a bit more open in treatment of homosexuality. The relationship of Albert Dekker and young John Arledge is rather obvious. Dekker in fact chooses a gruesome suicide rather than live without Arledge after he dies. In fact what's really startling to me was that the heavenly figure that Ian Hunter represents neither condemns suicide or homosexuality. I'm really wondering how the censors of the day let that one slip through. Paul Lukas has a very interesting part. He's today what we would consider a serial killer, he's married and killed many women for their money. He's cool and cynical and rejects Hunter's entreaties. When Hunter says they will never meet again, the line is loaded with implications.Strange Cargo is a strange film. It's not bad, but could have been a lot better without code restrictions.

STRANGE CARGO is strange indeed. It's hard to know just what to take from all the allegorical symbolism inherent in the IAN HUNTER Christ-like figure, the only man who shows compassion and tries to steer the other escapees on the straight and narrow.He has his hands full. JOAN CRAWFORD is a shady lady on the lam; CLARK GABLE is at his most rambunctious, bull-headed and arrogant; ALBERT DEKKER is a man on the brink of madness; PAUL LUKAS is a devil may care philanderer looking for easy money; J. EDWARD BROMBERG foolishly throws away a canteen of water and tries to retrieve it in shark infested waters; PETER LORRE has his mind on getting Crawford away from Gable--and they're all strictly losers by the time the story winds up.And it does take time to wind up. Almost two dreary hours of fights, guilt, loneliness, depression, and swamp fever for the viewer, all murkily photographed for atmospheric realism with very few daylight scenes.Gable is proficient as playing the kind of stock character he was famous for and Crawford is rather convincing as a woman who wishes she didn't love him as much as she does. But it's a tiresome tale with very little bits of humor to lighten the tone and some of the dialog is so full of platitudes about good and evil that you may find it a chore to watch at all.Interesting at times, but it misses the mark as entertainment--even serious entertainment.

Hollywood always had trouble coming to terms with a "religious picture." Strange Cargo proves to be no exception. Although utilizing the talents of a superb cast, and produced on a top budget, with suitably moody photography by Robert Planck, the movie fails dismally on the credibility score. Perhaps the reason is that the film seems so realistic that the sudden intrusion of fantasy elements upsets the viewer's involvement in the action and with the fate of the characters. I found it difficult to sit still through all the contrived metaphors, parallels and biblical references, and impossible to accept bathed-in-light Ian Hunter's smug know-it-all as a Christ figure. And the censors in Boston, Detroit and Providence at least agreed with me. The movie was banned. Few Boston/Detroit/Providence moviegoers, if any, complained or journeyed to other cities because it was obvious from the trailer that Gable and Crawford had somehow become involved in a "message picture." It flopped everywhere.Oddly enough, the movie has enjoyed something of a revival on TV. A home atmosphere appears to make the movie's allegory more receptive to viewers. However, despite its growing reputation as a strange or unusual film, the plot of this Strange Cargo flows along predictable, heavily moralistic lines that will have no-one guessing how the principal characters will eventually come to terms with destiny.