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.
Review of White Cargo
