White Cargo (1942) User Reviews

Showcases The Legendary Beauty of Hedy Lamarr!

[wndlz · 7/10 · 11 December 2002]

This film certainly was not one of the best films of 1942. However, I do believe it succeeds as purely escapist entertainment. Yes, the plot was silly, the script was poor, and the performances were mostly indifferent; but Hedy's entrance, with the line 'My name is Tondelayo', became a vintage moment in film history. She was a beguiling and breathtakingly beauty, and she seemed to enjoy this role. Hedy made this a major box-office hit in 1942, and became a pin-up favorite of many WW2 vets. This was a showcase for Hedy's beauty, as previously noted the cinematography was very good. Note, the use of shadows against Hedy's face, to accentuate every incredible feature. The one thing that annoyed me, was the insufferably long and boring 30 minutes or more, before Hedy made her entrance

All criticisms aside though, a film like this needs to be viewed, within the context of escapist film entertainment, circa 1942. The studios were cranking out many more films than they do today. The world was within the grips of the worst war in history, and nearly half of the country's population was going to the movies, at least once a week! There were great films being released, but most films were released just to entertain audiences, who would then have an excuse to buy popcorn and perhaps a soda. So this campy movie was made, with Hedy Lamarr as the incredibly beautiful and seductive Tondelayo, and made millions for MGM. Thus, 'White Cargo' with legendary beauty Hedy Lamarr rates a 7/10, for providing some fairly mindless, but visually compelling entertainment.

I am Tondelayo.

[lastliberal · 6/10 · 18 April 2008]

One can only wonder how many posters of Hedy Lamarr as Tondelayo were pinned up by soldiers in WWII. She is seductive and appealing and downright hot as a half African who spends the entire film in bra and sarong. Most of the time she is striking seductive poses and lounging on a couch showing off her magnificent body that matches her unequaled facial features.

This is a comedy for the most part, and it is really funny. Frank Morgan is back, not a The Pirate, but as a drunken doctor that has probably been drummed out of the medical establishment and can only get work on this African plantation.

Walter Pidgeon, who would go one to capture two Oscar nominations in the next two years (Mrs. Miniver, Madame Curie), was the leader of the plantation and the colonial law. He was hilarious as a succession of new assistants arrived in white, freshly starched clothing from the Mother Country, and all said the exact same words that drove him nuts.

Of course, he warned all of them about Tondelayo, even banning her from the camp, but it was useless as they all succumbed to her charms.

A must-see for those who appreciate what made our fathers happy in the Big One.

Hedy Lamarr was Outstanding

[whpratt1 · 7/10 · 25 April 2008]

Enjoyed this black & white 1942 film dealing with a British rubber plantation in Africa where Mr. Harry Witzel, (Walter Pidgeon) is in charge of the operations. The conditions on this plantation is very hot and humid and you go to bed sweating and wake up the same way in complete discomfort. There is a young man named Mr. Langford, (Richard Carlson) who has been hired on the plantation and is eager to make big changes in his new position, but the climate soon breaks him down, except he does meet up with a very sexy native gal named Tondelayo, (Hedy Lamarr) who wraps him around her little finger in more ways than one. Veteran actor Frank Morgan plays the role as an alcoholic doctor who gives a great supporting role and Hedy Lamarr gave a great acting performance as a very dangerous and sexy gal who always gets what she wants. Enjoy.

Shakespeare anyone?

[bruno-32 · 28 April 2000]

I was reading another members review on this movie and just was wondering what this member expected when he came across it. It was a simple jungle movie ( without the animals ). In fact the only animal that i found in this movie was that feline femme fatale Hedy Lamarr. The woman was dropped dead gorgeous, and true the lines weren't what you would expect as in a Shakespeare play, but it was campy. I defied any actress of that day, yes, that goes for Davis and Hepburn would of made it any better with those lines. Personally, they didn't have what Hedy had, the physical attributes that was required. I suggest that if your looking for great acting then go to Broadway. As i watched this movie, I couldn't help but see a parallel to that movie Jaws. Remember, you don't get to see the shark until the movie is almost over. In this one, they were setting up Hedy as Tondelayo, for she didn't appear until a half hour or so into it and boy, when she appeared, I actually felt the heat of that Jungle. Watch it and enjoy it for what it is, nothing more, nothing less, but you'll not forget Tondelayo.

"She knows how to purr her way into your mind and scratch her way out..."

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 12 August 2016]

'Tondelayo' - sort of rolls off the tongue doesn't it? This was the picture that changed Hedy Lamarr's image from a chaste, unattainable ideal into a seductive temptress. I didn't quite know what to make of her when she first appeared on screen, her cocoa-butter smeared countenance almost made her look like a caricature, and those big, white eyes, whoa - they had that hypnotic, mesmerizing quality that viewers of the day only needed to take one look at and they'd have to do some acclimatizing of their own. Very sexy though, you have to admit.

Poor old Langford (Richard Carlson), he didn't know what he was in for. Put in charge of his own rubber plantation, he loses sixty percent of the crop in just five months. You could understand why his boss Witzel (Walter Pidgeon) would be miffed, but that didn't seem to be the crux of their problem. Langford should have taken the old curmudgeon's advice not to manny-palaver with the ladies, it only got him into the deep end of the pool with Tondelayo. But come on, how could anyone help it when she wiggled that seductive body and made with the sexy accent. You'd need nerves of steel to disregard an advance like that.

Langford managed for a time, but there's just so far good judgment could go with the intrepid adventurer. How could he when Tondeleyo challenges him with "Awyla, no want to palaver?". I'd palaver in a heartbeat myself. Still, it came across as a bit of a shock to hear Lamarr's character ask her new husband to beat her up once in a while just to keep the marriage interesting. You know, so the making up part would be all the sweeter. Boy, they sure took this thing into soft porn territory in more ways than one, even with the Motion Picture Production Code in effect. Gee, I wonder how they managed to rationalize this one.

Well look, it's not high drama but it sure is entertaining. Nice support here from that guy behind the curtain in "The Wizard of Oz", Frank Morgan, as the inebriated doctor. Obviously, Witzel knew what he was talking about right from the start when he told Langford to beware, but gee, did he have to stuff that poison juna down Todelayo's throat? That just wasn't very gentlemanly.

tondalayo

[josephmcgrath-62358 · 6/10 · 10 August 2016]

hedy Lamar has no peer when it comes to beauty. her role in this movie showed a beautiful face and a gorgeous figure. she holds her own with a great performance. this movie is chalk full of great actors that seem to be fulfilling a studio contract commitment. nevertheless, Walter pigeon, Henry o'O'Neil, frank Morgan, Richard Carlson,and a personal favorite of mine Reginald Owen. show they are old pro's. the chronological recollection by pigeons character seems fitting and a staple of pigeon throughout his career. hedy Lamar was a very good actress and I thought her role here was outstanding. her role in 'conspiritors' was her most outstanding role with another bevy of great actors. she was a icon when it came to beauty, Bergman, Loren, Margret, even Hayworth, teirney, Monroe. were not in her class. she was a good actress as well. probably not why she had so much success.

Give Tondelayo silk and bangles or Tondelayo send you hell in handbasket

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 16 October 2014]

"I am Tondelayo" at one time was a phrase bandied about, though you don't hear it much, if ever, anymore. "White Cargo" is a 1942 film starring Hedy Lamarr, Walter Pidgeon, Richard Carlson, Frank Morgan, and Henry O'Neill.

The story concerns men on a rubber plantation, bored, hot, and hating it. When Mr. Langford (Richard Carlson) joins them, he's fresh and rarin' to go. As the others predict, his optimism doesn't last long.

Then along comes the scourge of the jungle, Tondelayo (Lamarr). She's Egyptian and Arab so she could pass the Hays office, which said whites and blacks couldn't cavort. Apparently Tonde has given quite a few white jungle dwellers, including the Pidgeon carrier, quite a ride. He detests her, and warns Carlson to stay away from her. But he can't. Soon she works her magic on him and his destruction begins.

Among Holllywood's spectacular beauties, Hedy Lamarr was in the top 5. She had something besides beauty (intelligence, but that doesn't come into play here) -- sex appeal. You certainly didn't have to be womanless in the jungle to find her gorgeous, especially half-dressed. Sporting dark makeup, a bad accent and bad accent, Tondelayo proves to be problematic.

I think this was intended as a serious film, and it's very well made, not like some campy movie. True, Lamarr's role is campy, and it would have been no matter who had acted in it.

You can mark this down as an entertaining film about the tropics, a favorite topic over at MGM. And maybe on Jeopardy Alec Trebek had to run through the "Hedy Lamarr" topic all by himself while the clueless contestants just stood there, but there was a time when everybody had heard of her -- and Tondelayo.

Getting Acclimatized With Tondeleyo

[LeonLouisRicci · 7/10 · 7 January 2014]

Infamous Bad Movie with a Famous Performance from Hedy Lamarr that became the butt of Jokes for Decades and a WWII G.I. Pinup. It is all Contrast between the Loud and Repetitive Dialog and the Soft and Darkly Luminous and Sexy Shots of Tondeleyo, the Half-Breed Man Eater.

It is a Risky Effort and is quite Trashy from a usually La-Dee-Da Studio, MGM and it Skirts the bounds of Post-Hays-Code and what was Considered Moral Righteousness. It has some White Supremacist Lines and the Half-Caste Tondeleyo is made to be Egyptian/Arabic instead of White/Black that Definitely was a No-No.

The Movie was pretty much Dismissed, Disregarded, and Degraded when it came out, mostly because of the Tawdry Tone. Today it is Viewed for its Camp Value and also because the Beautiful Miss Lamarr was Scantily Clad, Heavily Made Up, and Spoke in a Native Vernacular that Tarzan would have Appreciated.

Warning...Do not play a Drinking Game where you take a Drink Every time the Name Tondeleyo is Uttered, and if You include Acclimatized, there will be no Survivors.

Acclimatized sooner or later

[unbrokenmetal · 5/10 · 14 June 2013]

Witzel (Walter Pidgeon) supervises the workers at an African rubber plantation. Only the doctor (Frank Morgan) stayed as long in the jungle as Witzel did, and this life in a merciless climate has had its effect on them both. While the doctor became a drunkard, Witzel found refuge in cynicism, offending everyone around. When Langford (Richard Carlson) arrives at the plantation to assist Witzel, the boss tells him 'You haven't got what it takes. Go back home! Every native here laughs at you behind your back'. The newbie is determined to resist this attack ('Once I'm acclimatized...'), but then everything becomes even more difficult due to a mysterious lady named Tondelayo (Hedy Lamarr).

Well, you know it's not going to be a masterpiece as soon as you see Hedy Lamarr painted black, reminded me of Orson Welles as Othello... except for the dialog. And since 'White Cargo' is based on a stage play, it takes place almost entirely in the same hut. However, the story of the strange beauty leading men into temptation and the basic situation that these few men far away from home depend on each other is good enough to make the movie watchable.

Hedy's eyes and teeth glow through the makeup

[kirksworks · 7/10 · 26 May 2011]

This review is full of spoilers, but I knew the ending before seeing it, and it still affected me.

Although this is really one heckuva dumb film, I found it entertaining in many ways. Hence the rating of 7. I've seen quite a few Hedy Lamarr films, and have a pretty good handle on her style and the breadth of her talent, but nothing prepared me for this.  She plays Tondalayo, a native girl in Africa (half Egyptian and half Arab), who seduces and destroys men at a rubber plantation in the jungle.  Like many native female types of the time, she speaks in pigeon English (me go, me stay, etc.), that is fairly ridiculous, particularly if you understand how intelligent Hedy Lamarr really was.  Her eyes and teeth literally glow through the dark makeup that covered her body.  And in spite of how insane the whole idea of this casting was, she came across as hot, potent and sexual, something she hadn't done for me in any of the other films I've seen her in.  

As seductive as she tried to be in Technicolor in "Samson and Delilah," the calculated coldness of her character and clunky dialog didn't amount to much.  On the other hand, "White Cargo" was shot in b&w, and Tandalayo only appears in night scenes, allowing shadow and light to play across Lamarr's face in interesting ways.  She was more beautiful in this than in anything else I've seen her in.  Something about the darker skin set off her bone structure in a way her normally porcelain skin tones never did.  At least for me.  A scene where she dances to a phonograph record is full of sexual fire.  Her playful and sensuous moves were quite titillating, so much so that apparently the studio shied away from using as much footage of her as originally intended, cutting away to Richard Carlson watching her with lustful glee.  This film was even more jungle sweaty than Clark Gable and Jean Harlow in "Red Dust," ten years before. This time the male leads were played by Walter Pidgeon and Carlson, but in a much different story than "Red Dust."  

I've never seen Pidgeon this intense.  He plays Witzel, the man in charge of the camp, a hot head with a short fuse.  Being stuck in the jungle for years, broken down by the heat and difficulty dealing with natives, certain phrases by newcomers like, "Are the natives friendly?" set him off.   His temper exploded so often, it became annoying. On the other hand, it added to the discomfort these characters felt in the situation they found themselves.  

Carlson plays Langford, who has arrived to replace a foreman who has been reduced to a drunken sot.  Witzel warns Langford that exactly the same thing will become of him before the end of his four year contract.  And he warns Langford about Tondalayo.  Witzel was seduced by Tondalayo at one time but lived to tell the tale.  Within five months, however, Langford has succumbed to both the jungle, drink, and Tondalayo, who seduces him behind Witzel's back.  Soon it becomes clear that Langford is on the road to ruin, but he hates Witzel so much because of his animosity towards Tondalayo, he figures out a way of allowing Tondalayo into the camp without her being chased away.  Langford marries her.  

Tondalayo finds this loads of fun at first, but all she really wants is power and "trinkets."  When she comes to understand her wedding vow of "til death do us part," she plots her strategy.  Langford succumbs to drink, and her interest in him wanes. He loses his power.  What Tondalayo really desires is control over the man in charge, and Witzel is that man. She goes after him for a second try.  He almost falls for her seduction, but soon finds that she has been poisoning Langford. She has taken "til death do us part" literally.  

In one extremely intense scene, Witzel finds Tondalayo administering what he finds to be poison to an unconscious Langford, grabs the bottle and forces the liquid down her own throat.  It's really hard to watch this scene, and both Pidgeon and Lamarr play it well.  Tondalayo runs off to collapse and die in the jungle.  Still unconscious, Langford is sent on the next boat back to America.  As they carry him off to the boat, Witzel calls him "white cargo."  Hence the title.  

What I find appealing about films like "White Cargo" beyond the exotic setting, is the opportunity for atmosphere and raw, intense drama that takes place in "another world."  It's likely that the reason these films aren't made anymore is because science fiction and alien planets have taken the place of jungles and plantations.   But science fiction is just too far removed from reality.  "Avatar" is probably the closest thing we have these days to something resembling "Red Dust" or "White Cargo."   There were a few last gasps of these sorts of films in the 1950s and 60s like Audrey Hepburn in "Green Mansion," or the Marlon Brando "Mutiny on the Bounty."  Both films bombed.  Even Disney's "Pocahontas," an exotic love story that takes place in a jungle, did poorly compared to its previous hits.  Like musicals, exotic adventures stories of these types necessarily had to be transformed into something more contemporary.  

"White Cargo" is not a great film by any means, but not all entertaining films need be masterpieces.  The story moves with intensity, is well paced, the cinematography exquisitely moody, and there is a beautiful score by Bronislau Kaper, which was one of his first jungle movies.  Coincidentally, he went on to do "Green Mansions" and "Mutiny on the Bounty." The main reason to see "White Cargo," however, is Hedy Lamarr.  She never did anything like it again.

Stinks Much

[jimtheven · 4/10 · 4 February 2001]

Great black and white cinematography, excellent performances by some great character actors (Frank Morgan, AKA The Wizard of Oz, in particular)and the usually wooden Walter Pidgeon, and a promising beginning...until you see the whites of Hedy's eyes. And teeth. They kind of glow in the dark, into which she otherwise blends. The basic problem here, beyond the silliness of the sultry half-breed's speech patterns, epitomized above, is that the pay-off is too cheap coming after a rich set-up. I never read the novel on which CARGO is based, but it can't have been this uninvolving succession of merely unpleasant and unsavory events. Two things are suggested in the first scenes which could have made for some nice melodrama: that Tondelayo was more sinned against than sinning and had a certain moral sense, and that her present nemesis Pidgeon had once loved her. But these themes are dropped. Hedy was better at regal and ethereal than she was at vampy and sultry, anyway. Worth seeing once as a bit of legendary camp.

Masterpiece of Camp !

[klasekfilmfan · 8/10 · 28 August 2006]

Almost every film buff would watch this and immediately write WHITE CARGO (1942) off the map due to the 'anti camp' syndrome. Although this movie is definitely campy, it is still a work of art. Take it to the camping ground and watch it at night by the fire. There is a certain magic to this movie that is sure to make the atmosphere of s'mores and grilled hot dogs all the more enjoyable.

HEDY LAMARR's caked-on brown makeup reminded me of Jennifer Jones' 'Pearl Chavez' in the (at times) campy classic DUEL IN THE SUN(which is a personal favorite of mine) made four years later in 1946. LAMARR has an over the top accent that is hardly believable. However, she pulled it off! Believe me, White Cargo is worth it just to see Hedy sweat on her dark skin wearing a one-piece bikini top throughout this movie! Walter Pigeon is a flame of fire all the way to the end. Very obscure part for Walter to be playing with such intensity.

The story takes absurd and wild twists and turns and is nothing if not purely fun entertainment. It doesn't have a long runtime, only about 80 minutes or so. It's not a large commitment of time. If you are a fan of camp, don't miss this classic.

Much Silk and Many Bangles

[utgard14 · 6/10 · 7 January 2014]

Campy melodrama about conflicts on an African plantation between two white men (Walter Pidgeon, Richard Carlson) over an exotic native girl named Tondelayo (Hedy Lamarr). It's a fun movie with a very memorable performance from Hedy. She's beautiful and sexy even behind the silly makeup. Pidgeon is great fun, yelling his way through the entire movie at every little thing that annoys him. Richard Carlson is quite good. Great support from Frank Morgan as a sympathetic doctor with a drinking problem. Nice cinematography, especially whenever Hedy is on screen. An entertaining movie with a very amusing ending. It helps if you don't take it too seriously.

Query: Is "acclimatize" a word or not?

[theowinthrop · 5/10 · 6 July 2005]

This film is given only a five by me - I stayed up late one night to see it, because I wanted to see Hedy Lamarr in one of her most famous performances. It was about 1971, in the summertime (so it was sultry weather - good to see such a tropical film). Hedy was good to watch, although her character's dialog and fate were odd. The other cast members, Frank Morgan and Richard Carlson, acted well. But it was watching Walter Pigeon getting all riled up, not only due to the antics of Todelayo but because he could not stand the word "acclimatize" being used that lasted longest in my memory.

The story is one of jungle rot. Pigeon , Carlson, and Morgan (and other males in the cast) are working on a plantation in Africa, and life there is not made easier by the arrival of Lamarr, a half-breed (as they called so-called non-white temptresses in the days of the Hollywood "code"). She snares Carlson, who stupidly marries her. She only sees him as good for buying her luxuries and giving her a meal ticket.

***SPOILER COMING UP***

When she finally tires of Carlson, Hedy starts poisoning him. Pigeon learns what she is doing, and forces her to drink the poison - and she runs out screaming (supposedly to die alone somewhere in the jungle).

The story is impossibly melodramatic claptrap today - I can't imagine a remake without miles of rewriting. It was produced in 1923 on Broadway by Earl Carroll, a man who is now totally forgotten. While Florenz Ziegfeld had his failings, he is remembered fondly as a great theatrical producer with taste - his "Follies" had many truly beautiful women in them, but also leading comedians like W.C.Fields, Ed Wynn, Will Rogers, Raymond Hatton, Fanny Brice, and music by Jerome Kern, Victor Herbert, George Gershwin. His classy "Glorifying the American Woman" with extravagant costumes really set a standard that is still recalled. Carroll wanted to be Ziegfeld, and created his "Vanities". He too had some good comics working for him, such as Fields (one year), Jimmy Savo, even Jack Benny. But while Ziegfeld dressed up his ladies, Carroll skirted the edge trying to show women as close to naked as possible. Still, for some two decades Carroll remained a well known figure in New York (and later Hollywood) producing. This despite a six month jail sentence in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary (in 1926) for lying to a Federal Grand Jury when it was revealed he used illegal booze at a party.

He did lie (it was not too healthy to reveal who was your friendly bootlegger). Actually the thing people did not realize about Carroll's party was that it was to honor his fellow Pittsburgh citizen, Harry K. Thaw. The murderer of Stanford White was a potential show biz "angel", and when he showed up Carroll yelled, "Here's Harry Thaw! Three cheers for Harry!". That Carroll could say that showed his real lack of character. I doubt if Ziegfeld would have done it.

Carroll (like Ziegfeld) did produce shows that were not his typical reviews. But Ziegfeld produced shows like SHOWBOAT and THE THREE MUSKETEERS. Carroll produced shows like WHITE CARGO. Carroll claimed it was great art - but he knew that a racially mixed love or lust affair was going to bring in many customers (especially men). Carroll always tried to wrap himself with some first amendment shield or high art shield. It fooled nobody.

If you have the time on a wet afternoon, with nothing better to do, then you have reason to catch WHITE CARGO. If you have something better to do, I'd recommend doing it.

Tondelayo does not make an appearance in this review.

[sadie_thompson · 2 December 2003]

She is easy to look at, isn't she. All tan skin, she's got that sarong (probably stolen from Dorothy Lamour), all that gorgeous black hair, but talent is lacking. Hedy Lamarr eschews acting completely in this delightful tale of sex in the jungle. It isn't about anything else--not man versus nature, not oppression of minorities--just plain sex.

Harry, as played by the statue-like Walter Pidgeon, has been in the jungle so long he's starting to act a bit kooky. He gets infuriated when people discuss the heat, certain words send him into a King Kong-like fit. I get the feeling we're supposed to think this is because there are several men there, but no women. Is this what happens? Gracious me--I better rearrange my priorities. Anyway, one of his helpers goes off his rocker and has to be replaced. The replacement, Langford, refuses to listen to Harry, who really does know what he's talking about, only to turn into a lazy lay-about.

At this point, a new character is introduced. She's a half-breed (not like Cher, but a half-breed nevertheless) named Tondelayo. The line "I am Tondelayo" did become something of a catch phrase--I can recall seeing Lucille Ball taunting some comedian, possibly Jerry Lewis, with it. Tondelayo is a gorgeous woman, but she likes a good time. Heck, she likes lots of good times in a row. Langford is smitten, and he can't understand why Harry insists that Tondelayo be avoided. Langford assumes Harry's jealous, which only makes him more thrilled. In order to keep Tondelayo near him, Langford marries her. She goes around telling everyone she's "Mrs. Langfut"--Hedy's accent prevents her from saying "Langford," apparently. Right around here is a scene that tops Tondelayo's entrance. She's going through all the trinkets that Langford has to give her to keep her interested, when she comes across a mirror. She looks at herself in it (naturally), and then remarks solemnly, "Him make big face this side, him make little face THIS side." Oh, I just died laughing. Tondelayo's odd speech patterns are the highlight of this movie--she sounds completely idiotic.

This being a 40s film, everyone has to get what's coming to them, in various showy ways. All in all, this is a delightful film with no statement to make, no mountains to move. It's just there to enjoy.

White mischief.

[st-shot · 6/10 · 25 May 2013]

One can't help but go native when encountering Tondelayo (Hedy Lamarr), a local beauty with a great dental plan In White Cargo. With western interests there to exploit the people and capitalize on their natural resources Tondelayo does a decent job of leveling the playing field with the white invaders with a brand of irresistible guerrilla sensuality that throws the boys into disarray.

Langford (Richard Carlson) is a newly arrived employee of an African rubber plantation run by the British. Wirtzel (Walter Pidgeon) who is in charge doubts if he has the right stuff to put up with the oppressive heat and supervising workers who don't speak English. Langford is soon frustrated and overwhelmed but finds respite in island beauty Tondelayo. Wirtzel who has fallen victim to her allure in the past warns Langford about her and the already abrasive relationship becomes even more strained. Gold digger Tondelayo meanwhile attempts to soak Langford for everything he has before Wirtzel puts an end to it.

There is more than a whiff of white supremacy in White Cargo as the savage and immoral Tondelayo without remorse plunders Carlson and tries to pit him against Wirtzel. It's all very nice to dally with the natives away from home states Frank Morgan's doctor but there is no room for miscegenation in the civilized white world. It's all very nice for them to exploit the land and people but the locals better know their place.

Lamarr's Jolson look is jarring with a gleaming Ipana smile as director Richard Thorpe keeps his camera trained in close-up of her. Hedy is stilted and her performance dated but with her beauty speaking for her she is a powerful presence to contend with. Pidgeon, Carlson, Morgan and Reg Owen lend able support but the arch storyline is creaky even for 42 and Lamarr as jungle girl remains a bit of a stretch in the looks department but her beauty and tenacity make it entertaining enough and given the time (WW ll) must have been a welcome sight to overseas GIs, though my guess is they took little heed to the cautionary addendum about the dangers of fraternizing with locals message.

Extremely silly and campy, but not crassly so...Lamarr makes it entertaining

[moonspinner55 · 5/10 · 21 October 2010]

Lusty half-caste on a British-owned rubber plantation in Africa--speaking in broken English and always preceded by the tinkling of her jewelry--insinuates herself between the two badgering white foremen; she childishly pits the hotheaded adversaries against one another, winner take Tondelayo! Leon Gordon's play, an adaptation of the novel "Hell's Playground" by Ida Vera Simonton, raised enough eyebrows in the 1920s to make it a hit, but by 1942 the material was already seeming awfully trite and thin. Director Richard Thorpe doesn't even try to disguise the stage-origins, keeping his actors running from Point A to Point B in quick little mad dashes. However, despite the lack of style and finesse, Hedy Lamarr's ripened female-savage is something to see, and occasionally her lines even get intentional laughs. ** from ****

I Am Tondelayo, the baddest girl in the East.

[bkoganbing · 4/10 · 1 May 2005]

Everyone in this movie is overacting, even Hedy Lamarr if that's possible for her. One of the campiest, most unintentionally hilarious things ever put on screen.

The plot briefly is Walter Pidgeon is both head of a rubber plantation and magistrate of a colonial area, presumably under British possession. He's getting rid of one assistant and a new one is coming on the plantation.

The biggest problem in the district is not disease, heat, jungle animals or natives who don't want to be slaves. It's Tondelayo a mixed racial native woman in tight dresses who gets everybody's mojo working overtime. She's working in her own way to relieve the white man of his burdens.

And now she's got her eye on Richard Carlson, Pidgeon's new assistant. Pidgeon's insistence that Carlson not get involved with Lamarr amounts to an obsession. The rest of this story has to be seen to be believed.

Hedy Lamarr was an extraordinarily beautiful and sexy woman and that made up for the fact she was not a good actress. But she could give a good performance in a great while with proper guidance. But she didn't get it here. Cecil B. DeMille, no player's director did better for her in Samson and Delilah.

Walter Pidgeon, Henry O'Neill, Frank Morgan, Richard Carlson, and Bramwell Fletcher are all gifted performers. They all look embarrassed to be there so they just overact the dickens out of this script. All and all it makes for hilarious viewing.

Great Trash Sequel to Heart of Darkness

[wuxmup · 8/10 · 22 October 2010]

Hollywood used to turn out some great bad movies, and "White Cargo" is one of the greatest and baddest. People who complain that it's unrealistic are missing the boat. Except for the jungle heat, the isolation of the white guys, and location shots of what looks like a rubber plantation, this movie doesn't even pretend to be real. It's pulp fiction of the old school. You watch it to forget your troubles, and if you're like me (a guy), Hedy Lamar will make 'em vanish like bubbles. Because it combines shameless sensationalism and with solid melodramatic performances (especially from Lamar, Pidgeon, and Wizard-of-Oz Frank Morgan), even my wife liked it.

OK, Hollywood and America were a lot more racist in 1942 than now. We get it. But this movie isn't about race, imperialism, natural resources, or any of those other trendy topics, it's about the sensual power of Tondelayo.

Goofy makeup and all, it would have been tough to find any actress of any ethnicity who could top Hedy Lamar in the leading role. Tondie, an incarnation of Eve like you wouldn't believe, unites all misogynist female stereotypes into one purring package: she's mysterious, wild, stupid, primitive, insincere, manipulative, beautiful, evil, greedy, relentless, sadomasochistic, homicidal, and did I mention sexy? That all adds up to "irresitible" in the logic of this movie. The fact that she's the only woman within a hundred miles is certainly part of her charm.

And yes, as she drives Richard Carlson batty, Hedy Lamar really communicates all those things with her movements, her delivery, and, toughest to do, her glances. Her eyes alone reveal her mind switching from evil to stupid to greedy in rapid succession.

"White Cargo" is a demented fantasy sequel to Conrad's great story "Heart of Darkness," or an academic poindexter could argue that it is. But ignore that. Blatant junk movies today are pretentious, gory, and tedious. But not "White Cargo." It isn't as complicated or ingenious as "Gilda," but it comes close enough on the Meter of Marvelous Trash. Great fun if you love the ridiculous!

Hedy speaks Pidgeon-English

[atlasmb · 5/10 · 2 April 2013]

Maybe not a great film, but definitely watchable. First of all, I really enjoyed seeing Frank Morgan in his role as the doctor who uses liquor to cope with the backwater environment of an African rubber plantation. And Walter Pidgeon's role as the burnt-out manager of the plantation was an interesting contrast to some other roles he is known for. He is a firecracker ready to explode at the slightest provocation. Just the mention of certain words will set him off.

I do think the script was lacking, partially because it was repetitious. Okay, we understand what words trigger the boss man's rage. We don't have to hear them over and over. Regarding the lines that Hedy Lamarr was handed, they are sometimes silly, but we know that the only English she has heard was from Pidgeon's character and a few others. She does as well with her lines as anyone could.

Tondaleya's entrance is iconic. Whether you like the eyes accented by shadows and light, her presentation is a gamble that is consistent throughout the film and memorable. The first shot of Rita Hayworth in Gilda is similarly iconic.

Another thing that bothered me was the comic ending. Was it tacked on in hopes of undercutting the dramatic "real" ending of the film? Could be. It was totally worthless. An afterword with a dramatic or ironic ending would have been more suitable and effective.

I rated this a 5.

Delirious but Hugely Entertaining, a Mix of "Lolita" and "Mandingo"

[Sleepy-17 · 26 January 2000]

Why wasn't this mentioned in the "Bad Movies We Love" book? Hedy looks great and acts badly, and generally seems to be having the time of her life as a Native Girl interested only in cheap sex and even cheaper jewelry. She seems ecstatic whenever she has a whip in her hand, and delivers her lines with gorgeous pouts and stimulating winks. But beware! She doesn't appear for the first thirty minutes, which we spend listening to White Males bark at each other about how miserable they are. A little bit too much like being at work!

Not One Of Hedy's Best

[fuhgeddaboutit01 · 3/10 · 3 April 2006]

I now have about seven of Hedy's films on DVD/Video so have a means of comparison."White Cargo" is definitely not one of her best parts and I consequently only voted it 3/10.She was badly cast, Walter Pigeon is too melodramatic, and for a film, there was not enough change of scenes for my liking as it heavily betrays the stage play antecedent whence it originated.95% is so obviously made in a studio where the action gets bogged down.For a film supposedly set in Africa, couldn't the budget have stretched to a few more location shots?I know this was wartime (1942) but Florida could have made a good substitute.

Once the promising opening sequence is over (of a flying boat landing on a river), we are stuck in the planters shack (in the studio) and from there on its just a lot of bad tempered men shouting at each other and getting drunk.I did not "buy it" that an intelligent man sent by the government to an African plantation would fall for an illiterate savage, Tondelayo, whose only interest seemed to be how many trinkets she could obtain out of the men she meets.I much prefer to see Hedy as the intelligent, sophisticated woman she was and she was so much better cast in say "Boom Town" (1940) with Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy.Indeed in that film despite not having primary billing, she acts Claudette Colbert right off the screen.I also particularly liked her in "Come Live With Me"(1941) with Jimmy Stewart - see my critique of this film.

Slow moving but campy melodrama; Must be seen to be believed!

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 25 November 2012]

You have expect to hear Hedy Lamarr screech, "Gif me da Cobra Jewel!" in her performance as the supposedly half-caste Tondelayo, an exotic but obviously insane beauty that destroys every man she touches. Going on a rampage if bored, not getting the type of attention she thinks that she deserves, or just not clad in enough jewelry, Tondelayo is the type of female that should be abandoned on a deserted island far away from any man. When rubber plantation owner Walter Pidgeon looses interest in her, she sets her sights on newcomer Richard Carlson who is no match for her spider woman wiles. They marry against Pidgeon's harsh advice, but instantly bored, she sets up a jealous fight between Carlson and Pidgeon which pleases her needy quest for being the focus of every man's desires.

All that is needed is a quick shot saying her famous line, "I am Tondelayo", and the camera cuts out to let her and Carlson move onto a seduction. They say that a man chases a girl until she catches him, but in this case, Carlson is indeed going to catch something, and it isn't the type of woman you want to spend the rest of your life with. Almost an update of the old Theda Bara "A Fool There Was" plot ("Kiss Me My Fool!"), this just adds sandy beaches and mosquito netting to the mix. Frank Morgan is the drunken doctor, both comical and pathetic, while Reginald Owen has some amusingly droll bits.

It is the campiness that saves this from being a bore. Lamarr, in dark makeup surrounded by little light, only slightly melts her icy interior as long as she is out to get what she wants from the men around her. The result are melodramatics that probably upset the producers over at Universal who were preparing similar vehicles for Maria Montez, and made the producers of Dorothy Lamour's sarong films over at Paramount laugh hysterically. It wouldn't take a child to see what this evil creature known as Tondelayo was up to, so when the payoff comes, it is an absolute hoot. The final reminded me of the consequences for villainy as seen for Bela Logosi in 1935's "The Raven" and Judith Anderson in 1940's "Rebecca". Walter Pidgeon wisely returned to the more sobering partnership with Greer Garson after this, while the bland Carlson drifted along as far as he could on the silver screen, while Lamarr had to wait until the end of the decade to play another temptress, Biblical vixen Delilah.

Four lonely white men in 1910 Africa rubber plantation

[grumpy736-1 · 8/10 · 10 August 2016]

First of all I took this film to be a stage play with all four actors having declaimed those lines hundreds of times. It turned out after the ending I went to the reviews, yes, it had been a stage play in London and the playwright was hired to write a film script. I think he just rearranged the scenes for the camera setups. It works very well as a stage play -- the actors in the film deliver the lines as if they had said them for months and each word is carefully enunciated --- no mumbling naturalism or words not made clear to the audience in the back rows. Some of the reviews denigrate Hedy Lamarr's performance.. I'm not a fan but I don't see how she could do anything else with it given the times and the restrictions. I say it is well worth watching for cinema students looking for how to rework a stage play

That's HEDley!

[samgrass-3 · 5/10 · 27 December 2010]

I remember watching this as a youngster, when I was on my "movies or television shows in the jungle" kick (Tarzan, Jungle Jim, Ramar, and especially, Sheena). Watching it again, my attitude towards it had changed considerably, from awe-inspiring to camp. It's based on a 20's play from Broadway and was probably meant as a vehicle to get Hedy Lamarr over with the public as a sex siren. And that she is in White Cargo. While she certainly cannot act, the one thing she can do is vamp – and vamp she does. She is Tondelayo (no relation to Kimona Wannalaya), a dark beauty that tantalizes the Brits at an African rubber plantation and desires lots and lots of silk and baubles. Life on the plantation is monotonous and a hardship on those who serve. After all, there's no cable access, and drink is the best way out. Walter Pidgeon stars as Harry Witzel, plantation boss and the head of the local colonial district. His hated assistant, Wilbur Ashley, is worn down by the environment and is slightly bonkers. (Ashley is played by Bramwell Fletcher, best noted for laughing himself to death at Karloff's revival in The Mummy.) His replacement is Langford (Richard Carlson), full of spit and vinegar and oblivious to Witzel's warning of the "damp rot" that can grab hold of a man. One gets the feeling that the main cause of damp rot is the lack of women – or should I say, white women. Witzel tells Langford that he'll soon be indulging in "mammy palaver." Langford, of course, pooh-poohs Witzel's prophecies - until one night a figure appears at his door and says "I am Tondelayo." Yes, it's Hedy, looking quite hot in that bikini outfit, though she's slathered with about five pounds of dark make-up. (Sort of like the type Jennifer Jones wore as Pearl Chavez in another camp classic, Duel in the Sun.) Of course, in the play, Tondelayo is supposed to be African, which means Black, but this is Jim Crow America and the very idea, even the hint, of miscegenation, was deemed repugnant for the masses. So, MGM got the play's author in to change Tondelayo around to being "half-Egyptian, half-Arab," and not her blue eyes on close-ups. In fact, her eyes get longer close-ups than Lugosi's in White Zombie. To make a long story short, Tondelayo is in love with Harry, who ignores her. So she sets her sights on Langford, who marries her. Big mistake, for Langford can't afford her and Tondelayo has a low boredom point. (Tondelayo also speaks like many young athletes in that she constantly refers to herself in the third person. This would be funny if it weren't so pitiful.) Because the other characters pound into her head the inviolability of marriage ("till death do you part"), she takes to poisoning her husband with "Jama juice." Harry catches on and forces her to drink the juice: End of Tondelayo. Campier entertainment one couldn't ask for.