Set Sail From Devil's Island

Gable and Crawford's Last Together is Strange Cargo (1940)

Clark Gable's first after Gone With The Wind finds him busting off a devilish island with a Christ figure among convict company. Obviously one-of-kind, this runs long, has several climaxes (one only needed), but plays fine given willingness to get into spirit. Glamour folk Gable and Joan Crawford meet mud and crocs in pursuit, Strange Cargo '40-sold legitimately as something different, at least for them. Gable snarls and is relentlessly cynical; you'd actually like him to give so much attitude a rest. Here was a furthest up necks in swamp a Metro cast had gone since Kongo in 1932, only this time with soul-saving along way in accord with Code responsibility. One great scene has everyone on an escape boat deciding who'll test a barrel possibly tainted with salt water, knowing the drinker might swell his tongue and die hard in event it's there. Certainly made me resolve never to touch the stuff. We get feel of excess cooks thinning the broth, downside of MGM star vehicles on which so many below-line jobs hung. Leo could afford blue-ribbon support casts, thus Peter Lorre, Albert Dekker, Paul Lukas, many others that make Strange Cargo more an ensemble than was usual for a Gable/Crawford. Visually a knockout, thanks to HD delivery by Warner Instant.