Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Tyreece Hulme One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

thecinemacafe The cargo isn't the only strange thing on this journey. However, the title does symbolically refer to its most unusual factor: A rather too obvious Christ-like figure played by Ian Hunter who tags along with some other prisoners attempting an escape from Devil's Island, a penal colony off the coast of French Guiana. One might suspect that this character's persistent appearance in the storyline would be a constant annoyance yet that's really not the case. He's rarely judgmental. His remarks about the others are always creatively intelligent, often unexpectedly helpful. He's even forgiving given these convicts' sordid backgrounds especially after witnessing their self-centered actions during the long and difficult escape. A notable example of his rather surprising response occurs when two of the convicts' (portrayed by Albert Dekker and a young John Arledge) very close and personal relationship ends when the younger one dies. Dekker not being able to cope without his friend (lover?) decides to take his own life. Yet Hunter neither condemns the suicide or the rather obvious homosexual relationship between the two. Instead he chooses only to reinforce the idea to Dekker as he's dying that it's not too late for him to reach a higher spiritual plateau. Besides, this spiritually symbolic figure is not just an observer he's a participant. For one thing he typically goes to great lengths (sometimes miraculous) to help the other criminals remain free! His presence right through to the end of this story will remain mysteriously, and perhaps awkwardly, ambivalent. Yet all of these characters are unique and multidimensional. Most are depicted as ruthless albeit creative opportunists. Foremost is Paul Lukas' serial killer having a past that includes disposing of his many wives for purely financial gain. He cynically but respectfully rejects Hunter's religious overtures right up to the end when they part company, bringing further realism to the proceedings. Now did I mention this film stars Clark Gable as one of the convicts and Joan Crawford as a thinly disguised prostitute? No? Well then I saved the best part for last. Their on and off again relationship (not to mention their dialogue which is snappier than a bus load of Japanese tourists) is priceless. Add the weird Peter Lorre as a prison informer who vies for Crawford's affections and you have one mismatched, very strange yet fascinating motion picture.

dmdavis-687-77066 When you first start watching this movie, it seems like a pretty straight forward prison escape movie, with good actors (Gable, Crawford, Hunter and Lukas) but nothing to "write home" about. Then one of the characters portrays a palpable and unusual sense of grace and empathy toward those around him. This and other incidents soon move the plot from a simple thriller into a depiction of spiritual grace that can be very moving. Those at peace with their own faith will be able to appreciate the message, whether it is in accord with their own beliefs or not. Those who are still tortured by where they stand in the cosmos may find it unsettling and my heart goes out to them in their suffering. A sign of good acting and good directing is when there is a story line that sounds really off-kilter, but the action on the screen rings true. That was the impact this movie had on me. Kudos to the crew for telling a story of grace, redemption and the power of acceptance in such an effective, yet unobtrusive way.

davidfmaas Paradox and Transformation in Strange Cargo David F. Maas [email protected] Hawkins, TexasI have been enthralled by the movie Strange Cargo since seeing it as a nine year old boy on television in the middle 1950's. I purchased my own VHS copy of this movie in 1995, at the age of 51, watching it dozens and dozens of times, continually fascinated by the symbolism, the philosophical focus, and the stark adventure of a bold escape from a jungle penal colony controlled by the French off the coast of Guiana. This summer, at the age of 65, I bought a seasoned copy of Richard Sale's novel Not Too Narrow, Not Too Deep from Amazon.com, hoping to peel off a few more layers of meaning.Surprisingly, I concluded that Lawrence Hazard's screenplay was far superior to the Richard Sale novel upon which it was based, having a much tighter allegorical construction. Hazard thoroughly deconstructed the novel but stayed faithful to the philosophical core. The screenplay graphically describes the remarkable transformations or conversions from selfish to altruistic life views of six convicts and a sultry nightclub singer escaping to freedom through a dense tropical forest. The catalyst for their transformations is a mysterious Christ figure named Jean Cambreau (Ian Hunter). The sultry nightclub singer Julie (Joan Crawford), ordered off the island by the warden for fraternizing with the prisoners, falls in love with a thief Andre Verne (Clark Gable) after he reads to her the romantic words of Solomon's Song of Songs. She altruistically plans to resign herself to an unhappy marriage with M'sieu Pig (Peter Lorre), a professional stool pigeon, in order to allow Verne to escape. A ruthless killer Moll (Albert Dekker) altruistically sacrifices his life as he drinks from a cask which has absorbed salt water.Andre Verne, who almost escapes to freedom aboard a fishing boat, endangers his own life saving Cambreau, whom he has moments before attempted to drown. Paradoxically, Verne learns that true liberty or freedom consists not in escaping from law but in acquiescing to the law. Instead of deriving satisfaction from coveting and stealing things—he yielded to a wholesome love relationship and playing by the rules. He learned that when we play by the rules, we have freedom right now. Freedom and contentment is a condition independent from circumstances, a condition originating in the heart or mind.At the end of the movie, Cambreau and the fisherman (played by Victor Varconi) who nearly brought Andre Verne to freedom had a very telling dialogue:Fisherman: He won't be sorry? Cambreau: No fisherman. He won't. Fisherman: And everything will be all right for them someday? Cambreau: Everything is all right—now.

carvalheiro "Strange cargo" (1940) directed by Frank Borzage is a movie located in Caribbean coast and concerning evasion of prisoners during a historical period of double oppression. But notwithstanding, they are unvanquished facing a bitter situation and dramatic turnabout with the help of a woman, at their level and in quite just balance before the male coordination and with this one escapes for freedom also with high costs for both.Borzage as director was one of the most engaged against the lack of expression of human beings in adverse situation, when sometimes the end justifies the reduced but decisive recourses, as modest it was this cargo for searching another land as hope inside a model of idealism that now it seems old style. Making a movie of escaping from prison is not exactly at the time as only more one story concerning adventure by itself, but also for showing the world of this dimension of inhumanity, where love is the secure way for resisting such an adversity of mind and body clashes on the way of the struggle as modern slaves. Fighting both as characters in almost twin conception of a love affair for their liberation on the sunny side of exploitation. This is why this movie is still a reference without shame of any past except forget it and its tricks as convicts helped by patriotism won another value buying that chance and moving away in a tropical storm that never a cargo waiting for maybe as another set for steady lives in dramatic situation. That is the strength that allowed the initiative of director Frank Borzage making almost a B picture with talented artists like Joan Crawford and Clarke Gable in a tropical set, where the idea of resort is not far away of our times nonetheless other circumstances but with the same outcast maybe. The fact that Guiana was a place from where a group escapes it is enough significantly for making of this track an adventure at the time of lack of freedom in colonial or overseas standing against their will. Borzage as director from Italian origins was known for implementing such a kind of story for fighting at the time of Vichy regime, nearby Caribbean sea administration influence, as though on jailing people such as not being well seen in Devil island, forgotten them from the public opinion apparently for ever and reverting it by the exploit of an evasion screened with punch and conscience.