This review may contain spoilers. TMDb That face when you're a serial-killing sociopath and…. I went in not knowing much about it besides the survival storyline and that it starred Gable, Crawford, and Lorre, and that was enough to me to decide to give it a chance. In It's A Wonderful Life, an angel comes from heaven to help a man. In desperation the warden gets him a laboring job outside the prison walls in an effort to tame him. Moll and Dufond are coded as gay lovers. He also has a habit of staying with the prisoners as they start to die off during their escape attempt, helping each one to find spiritual peace and redemption as they go. To be honest Crawford always seemed a little frigid to me—that is until the day I saw…. They attempt to ditch Verne, but he takes advantage of the chaos caused by their escape and makes a bolt on his own as well, liberating Julie from Marfeu along the way. A perfectly decent prison escape melodrama with a strange godly twist. His party, including Moll's innocent young friend Dufond, cultured wife-poisoner Hessler (Paul Lukas), and a couple of other prisoners, will bust out and make a run through the jungle. The two main characters played by Clark Gable and Joan Crawford, you have great chemistry as always, are really well written and their character arc is very believable. You think you’re watching a classic prison-break movie, in which several convicts attempt to escape the French penal colony on Devil’s Island. Julie is coded as a prostitute, or at least a former prostitute. Frank Borzage was no stranger to hard love, but his Strange Cargo (1940) was uncharacteristically raw for a tough romance. Film data from TMDb. Perhaps more a religious seeing-the-light type affair, but you rarely see this down and dirty dramas post-code. We have the classic prison escape movie mixed with an adventure through the jungle, with lots of existentialism and spiritualism sprinkled on it. You think you’re watching a classic prison-break movie, in which several convicts attempt to escape the French penal colony on Devil’s Island. Strange Cargo is a 1940 film directed by Frank Borzage. I had no idea about this film besides that it involved some kind of shipboard romance between Gable and Crawford. It might not work for everybody (but then again, what does? The setting is an island prison, somewhere in French Guyana, a place that's clearly supposed to be Devil's Island. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. This was an odd duck of a film though, and mainly about Clark Gable's character Verne. The strong sexual chemistry between Crawford and Gable only increases the humidity. He liked to toss everything within reach into a big pot, stir it around, and sometimes the result could be a little messy. ), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Strange_Cargo_(1936_film)&oldid=961947772, Pages using infobox film with unknown empty parameters, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Alvin Saxon as Himself and His Murray Club Band, This page was last edited on 11 June 2020, at 07:45. A hardened, vicious prisoner named Moll has arranged to have a boat laid up on the beach. The setting is an island prison, somewhere in French Guyana, a place that's clearly supposed to be Devil's Island. Since 2004 Strange Cargo offers full production service from budgeting through final execution. 1940 Verne and Julie’s odd courtship comes almost solely in…, "Don't tap your heart, you'll break your finger." Drifts a little at sea, but this was one hell of a well acted creation, unexpectedly dark in tone. I don't buy that Crawford's character loves Gable's, and therefore the twist doesn't work. The All-Star Cast includes Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Peter Lorre, Paul Lukas, and Ian Hunter. This…. The gentle, kindly Cambreau has an uncanny knack for knowing where to go, what to do, and what's going to happen. The toughest nut for the Man-Christ to crack comes in the form of Andre Verne played by Clark Gable at his smirking, cynical, egoist best. The film is notable for an early performance by George Sanders who went on to success in Hollywood. It’s an LGBTQ+ world and these are my other LGBTQ+ lists on Letterboxd: ➡️Minor Interest Films: In the Closet: A…, Jayce Fryman 18,689 films 2,936 99 Edit, This list collects every film from the Starting List that became They Shoot Pictures Don't They's 1000 Greatest Films. Report this film, Cinematic Time Capsule1940 Marathon - Film #64, ”When you've drifted as much as I have then you're glad to drop anchor - even if it is in the mud”. It seems older. any…, some films are not on tmdb, some may have been mismatched or simply not found when importing into…, Justin Hullinger 3,163 films 798 32 Edit, UPDATE 7/8/2018: It's been a while since I checked on this list, and I'm happy to see that a lot…, KEVIИ HДWKIИS 1,000 films 2,205 69 Edit, Updated to remove any movies in "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", and my Ultimate Film Canon lists…, David Blakeslee 3,796 films 650 53 Edit, Updated on 10/19/2020 - A list, arranged in order of original release, of all films associated with the Criterion Collection,…, Michael Hutchins 509 films 271 24 Edit, These are non-Janus films which are currently streaming on the Criterion Channel. Sexy, but mr gable should have killed god.