Review of Strange Cargo (1940) by Rick R — 17 May 2010

Strange Cargo (1940).

This is the quintessential Clark Gable movie. He plays André Verne, a rough and tough Devil's Island inmate. He sees saloon girl, Julie (Joan Crawford) while working on the docks and the sparks fly. He has to have her, even grabbing her well-exposed leg. André escapes to her room just to be with her. But, Julie has no choice, and must turn him in.

This is the quintessential Joan Crawford movie too, with her typical tough-talking, Sadie Thompson character. I know that she's supposed to be without make-up, but she still comes off pretty glamorous despite roughing it in the jungle swamps and lost at sea.

Both people are lost souls who are trying to escape their lot in life, but are not given too many alternative chances, or choices in life. Julie is fleeing the amorous advances of M'sieu Pig (Peter Lorre) by moving in with a miner in the jungle, and André is escaping with some other hardened convicts led by the most dangerous Moll (Albert Dekker) who would stab you in the back as help you (even though he has a soft spot for Dufond (John Arledge). There's also Hessler (Paul Lukas) who marries and murders rich women.

A stranger walks into the prison, Chambreau (Ian Hunter) and tags along with the convicts. He's somehow let into the escape and has a weird effect on many of the men, including André.

Naturally, as in most Clark Gable movies, the love of a good woman was what turned him around. But, in this particular case, there's the mysterious Chambreau who has challenged André's conscience to redeem himself and do the right thing.