Strange Cargo: Another Lost Gem

Clark Gable's next picture after "Gone With the Wind" was "Strange Cargo" (1940), where he teamed back up with Joan Crawford. Instead of their usual light romantic comedy, this time the legendary duo brings us complex, rather brainy drama. I would even describe this film as literary.

It has its flaws, but "Strange Cargo" is an interesting and enriching work of art with an unusually pronounced spiritual dimension. 


Set in the South American jungle, it tells the story of an inmate in a remote penal colony (Gable) and a tough broad from the gutter with no family (Crawford) struggling to get by working in cheap nightclubs (probably including prostitution).

Gable and several other inmates break out of the prison, and we follow them on their grueling trek. For reasons I won't explain, Crawford's character ends up going with them. Along the way, they all learn a lot about each other and the demons they're fighting.

There are so many characters that it gets a bit dizzying, and the script sometimes is a bit overly brainy. But there's a lot here to appreciate, and I'm saddened that "Strange Cargo" has been so completely forgotten.

In my continued exploration of the films of Joan Crawford, I'm realizing something more deeply than ever. The vast majority of good films have been forgotten. American culture has a bizarre tendency to forget about its movies. You'd think that good films would leave more of a trace in the culture. So much good work that no one knows about.

The director of "Strange Cargo," Frank Borzage (a man I've never heard of before this), won a Best Director award at the very first Oscar ceremony in 1929. The film was "Seventh Heaven," starring Janet Gaynor. She also won an Oscar that night, for that same film. Another forgotten American movie from a forgotten American director starring a forgotten American actress.