White Cargo (1942)
Posted: December 6th, 2022, 1:40 pm
White Cargo (1942) It’s hard to believe such a tawdry, and campy movie came out of the glamour house that was MGM. But I’m glad it did. Hedy Lamarr’s previous films with the studio were rather bland. Hedy was presented as a porcelain goddess, to be admired the same way one admires a statue. Don’t get me wrong, she did some fine work in H. M. Pulham, Esq., but her roles were too restrained, and high-minded. Bette Davis’s best work involved playing unsavory characters in Of Human Bondage and The Letter. Hedy needed something similar, to allow her to crack open the encasement that held her back her as an object of impersonal beauty. Lamarr plays Tondelayo, a racially ambiguous, greedy temptress toying with the white men working at a British rubber planation in West Africa in the early 1900s. The person who knows Tondelayo best is Harry Witzel, the plantation boss, forcefully played by Walter Pidgeon. Witzel is bit of a martinet. It’s implied he once fell under Tondelayo’s spell, but had enough sense to realize that staying with her would lead to his downfall. Ashley (Bramwell Fletcher), Witzel’s subordinate, wasn’t so lucky. His obsession with Tondelayo turned him into an alcoholic wreck who had to be sent back to England.
Ashley’s replacement, Langford (Richard Carlson), is young and handsome, but resents Witzel’s constant patronizing. Once Langford spots Tondelayo prowling around his bungalow, he’s hooked. Her introduction, “I’m Tondelayo”, is uttered as if Tondelayo were royalty, and for her own aggrandizement. Lamarr’s performance dispenses with any mannerisms, or subtlety, that might win favor with the audience. And this is good. Tondelayo is vulgar, and incredibly obvious in her attempts at seduction, a technique that’s practically infallible. She calls Langford Awila, and promises to make him tiffin, a tea, to make him feel better. Of course in the film tiffin means something completely different, a clever device to get around the censors. Wearing a sarong throughout the movie, we get to see that Lamarr’s beautiful legs could rival Grable's and Dietrich’s. Hedy’s darkened skin is offset by eyes that seem to glow. Credit this to Harry’s Stradling’s great cinematography. White Cargo is also very funny, courtesy of Frank Morgan, who plays the alcoholic Doctor, who hates wasting good liquor to treat infections. Following a big meal, and plenty of boos, Langford disapprovingly asks whether the men always drink like this. The Doctor responds, “Regrettably, no”. White Cargo is by no stretch a masterpiece, but I loved it anyway. In Tondelayo, Hedy created a great femme fatale, even if the film is not a film noir.
Ashley’s replacement, Langford (Richard Carlson), is young and handsome, but resents Witzel’s constant patronizing. Once Langford spots Tondelayo prowling around his bungalow, he’s hooked. Her introduction, “I’m Tondelayo”, is uttered as if Tondelayo were royalty, and for her own aggrandizement. Lamarr’s performance dispenses with any mannerisms, or subtlety, that might win favor with the audience. And this is good. Tondelayo is vulgar, and incredibly obvious in her attempts at seduction, a technique that’s practically infallible. She calls Langford Awila, and promises to make him tiffin, a tea, to make him feel better. Of course in the film tiffin means something completely different, a clever device to get around the censors. Wearing a sarong throughout the movie, we get to see that Lamarr’s beautiful legs could rival Grable's and Dietrich’s. Hedy’s darkened skin is offset by eyes that seem to glow. Credit this to Harry’s Stradling’s great cinematography. White Cargo is also very funny, courtesy of Frank Morgan, who plays the alcoholic Doctor, who hates wasting good liquor to treat infections. Following a big meal, and plenty of boos, Langford disapprovingly asks whether the men always drink like this. The Doctor responds, “Regrettably, no”. White Cargo is by no stretch a masterpiece, but I loved it anyway. In Tondelayo, Hedy created a great femme fatale, even if the film is not a film noir.
