josephmcgrath-62358 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.

MartinHafer If you are in the mood for a film where characters scream all the time and the film is about as subtle as a stripper at a Baptist picnic, then do I have a suggestion for you--"White Cargo". "White Cargo" is a bizarre film and I can't imagine that anyone involved felt particularly proud for their part in this crappy film.The movie is set in Africa at some god-forsaken rubber plantation. It's run by a cranky guy who screams all the time (Walter Pidgeon) and the doctor is a drunk (Frank Morgan). When a new assistant (Richard Carlson) comes to camp, his boss welcomes him by screaming and treating him like dirt. Later, the newbie falls in love with a silly native, Tondaleyo (Hedy Lamarr)--though, aside from her great body, there really isn't much to her. As for Lamarr, this performance as a bored sex-pot is not exactly a career highlight!! Overall, this is a very tough to love film. The characters all come off as annoying and stupid--such as Tondaleyo when she begs her new husband to beat her!! Overall, a dopey sex film without any sexual chemistry--just a lot of broad acting, bad acting and shrill direction. It's hard to believe that a fancy-pants studio like MGM could make such a misguided, trashy film as "White Cargo".

mark.waltz 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.

samgrass-3 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.