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White Cargo is a 1942 film drama starring Hedy Lamarr and Walter Pidgeon, and directed by Richard Thorpe. Released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, it is based on the 1923 London and Broadway hit play by Leon Gordon, which was in turn adapted from the novel Hell's Playground by Ida Vera Simonton. The play had already been made into a British part-talkie, also titled White Cargo, with Maurice Evans in 1930. The 1942 film, unlike the play, begins in what was then the present-day, when the United States desperately needed rubber for rubber for the war effort. After a brief introduction, it unfolds in flashback.

White Cargo
1942 US theatrical poster
Directed by	Richard Thorpe
Screenplay by	Leon Gordon
Based on	White Cargo 1923 play by Leon Gordon
Produced by	Victor Saville
Starring	Hedy Lamarr Walter Pidgeon
Cinematography	Harry Stradling Sr.
Edited by	Fredrick Y. Smith
Music by	Bronislau Kaper
Production company	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date	December 12, 1942 (1942-12-12)
Running time	88 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$570,000[1]
Box office	$2,663,000[1]

Plot

During the early years of World War II Worthing (Richard Ainley) the “boss”, is on board a seaplane, the Congo Queen on an inspection tour of rubber plantations in remote locations in the African jungle. The plane lands at a large, modern operation, roofs gleaming white in the jungle. Worthing tells the local supervisor that they must maximize production because the Japanese hold Malaya. He points to a photograph on the wall that shows thatched shacks beside a river and remembers the old days, in 1910, before “refrigerators, electricity and air-conditioning gadgets…schools and infirmaries.” The camera zooms into the photo, which comes to life.

The only four white men within hundreds of miles eagerly await the arrival of the riverboat Congo Queen. Wilbur Ashley (Bramwell Fletcher) and his boss, Harry Witzel (Walter Pidgeon), have grown to hate each other. Ashley is finally going home, switching places with Langford (Richard Carlson), set to commence a four-year stint. The other two white men are the alcoholic doctor (Frank Morgan) and Reverend Dr. Roberts (Henry O'Neill), a missionary.

Harry and Langford get off to a bad start, and it only goes downhill from there. It takes all of the efforts of the doctor and Roberts to keep the two men from each other's throats. The situation becomes worse when Tondelayo (Hedy Lamarr), a seductive native woman, returns. Harry, as resident magistrate, has already ordered her to leave his district, declaring her to be a disruptive, amoral influence.

Tondelayo begins to work her wiles on Langford. Despite warnings from all three of the other men (and perhaps to spite Harry), he eventually succumbs to her charms. When Harry orders her expelled once more, Langford decides to marry her. Roberts reveals that she is not a native, but rather half Egyptian and half Arab, and in spite of his better judgment, reluctantly joins them in holy matrimony.

After five months, Tondelayo has grown bored of her husband. However, when she tries to seduce Harry, he reminds her that she is Mrs. Langford "until death do you part". That gives her an idea. When her husband becomes sick, the doctor gives her some medicine for him. She obtains poison and gives him that instead. Harry, suspecting her deception, leaves and then returns just as she is about to give Langford another dose. Harry forces her to drink the rest of the poison. She runs away screaming and collapses on the jungle floor.

The doctor takes Langford away on the Congo Queen for better medical treatment, identifying him as ‘white cargo’. From the boat comes Langford's replacement: a young Worthing. Harry seizes him and forcefully tells him that he will stick around. Returning to the present, Worthing observes that he did.

Cast

• Hedy Lamarr as Tondelayo
• Walter Pidgeon as Harry Witzel
• Frank Morgan as The Doctor
• Richard Carlson as Langford
• Reginald Owen as Skipper of the Congo Queen
• Henry O'Neill as Reverend Dr. Roberts
• Bramwell Fletcher as Wilbur Ashley
• Clyde Cook as Ted
• Leigh Whipper as Jim Fish
• Oscar Polk as Umeela
• Darby Jones as Darby
• Richard Ainley as Worthing

Production

In 1930, Gordon sold the film rights to British International Pictures (BIP) for£15,000. The company then decided to make a sound version and paid Gordon an extra £10,000 for talking rights. The British film version followed the play closely. MGM bought the film rights from BIP and hired Gordon to adapt his own play.[2]

Production Code problems

According to the file on the film in the MPAA/PCA collection at the Margaret Herrick Library, the miscegenation element - a white man becoming intimately involved with a native African woman - of Leon Gordon's story caused great censorship difficulties, beginning with the U.S. distribution of a 1929 British screen adaptation of his play, also titled White Cargo. Maurice Evans, and Gypsy Rhouma, generated complaints from industry insiders, who felt that its distribution in the U.S. violated the spirit of Hays' decree.

In the play, Tondelayo is described throughout as a "negress." The March 1930 New York release of the 1929 British film, directed by J. B. Williams and Arthur Barnes, starring Leslie Faber, n the U.S. violated the spirit of Hays' decree.

As noted in articles included in the MPAA/PCA files, in accordance with the MPPDA's 1924 agreement of self-imposed censorship, MPPDA head Will Hays deemed the play unacceptable for screen adaptation under the Motion Picture Production Code, effectively banning any studios from producing it.

Tondelayo's ethnicity was therefore changed for the movie, turned into an exotic Arab.[3] In Gordon's original script this fact was to be revealed at the end, but the censor requested the information be revealed earlier.[2]

In April 1942, MGM announced they would make the film as a vehicle for Hedy Lamarr.[4] Leon Gordon adapted his own play and Walter Pidgeon was assigned the lead role (which had been played by Gordon in the original stage production).[5]

The production ran from May 18 to early June 1942.

Reception

According to MGM records, the film was highly successful, grossing $1,654,000 in the US and Canada and $1,009,000 elsewhere, and earning a profit of $1,240,000.[1][6][7]

References

External links

• White Cargo at IMDb
• White Cargo at the TCM Movie Database
• White Cargo at AllMovie
• White Cargo at the American Film Institute Catalog

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