***SPOILERS*** Needing a boat to get out of the steamy and crime-ridden port city of Palembang, as well as make some money, former US Navy man Steve Conway, John Ireland, gets stuck with the leaking and dinky freighter the Mokava. With no one willing to sail with Conway he and his long time friend Johnny Phelan, Brodwick Crawford, instigate a bar brawl where some two dozen sailors end up in the brig for three month's. These rummies are given a chance to get out of jail only if they agree to serve on Steve's boat. It's amazing that the two really responsible, Steve & Johnny, for all the ruckus were the only ones in the bar that weren't arrested by the local police!
Steve still needing a chief mechanic for his some 3,000 mile trip to Capetown from Palembang Sumatra, with a load of fuel oil, get's his good friend and partner in mischief crack-a-Jack boiler mechanic Johnny good and drunk, in celebrating his trip to Capetwon, and shanghai's him aboard. With Johnny aboard the Mokava and out cold everything is in ship-shop shape for Steve to make his haul of flue oil to Capetwon until two unexpected events happen. Steve's former flame and now Johnny's fiancée the pretty Kitty Mellar, Eileen Drew, bullies her way on-board, at gunpoint, to revive her drunken boyfriend and future husband Johnny as well as get him off the ship before it goes out to sea. There's also 12 year-old Rik, Robert Espinoza, Steve's Sumatran houseboy and adopted son talking Steve into letting him go on the trip to Capetwon with him.
The trip turns into a nightmare far all aboard with Steve and Johnny at each others throat's over the beautiful Kitty who's keeping from her fiancée Johnny that his friend Steve was her former lover. There's also the problem of Ric who's always getting himself into trouble, like almost getting crushed to death by a flying oil barrel, who in the end almost causes both Steve & Kitty to go overboard in trying to rescue him.
Things come to a head on the troubled and what seems like jinxed Mokava when ship-hand Rhys, Ted De Corsia, who for some reason has it in for Captain Steve tried to kill him by pushing him , as he was in the process of saving a drowning shipmate, into the gooey oil tank in the Morkava's hull. Thrown into the brig for the duration of the trip to Capetown Rhys, in an effort to get even with Steve, spills the beans to Johnny about Steve and Kitty's secret past. And even worse in that Steve had Kitty on-board just to rekindle his relationship with her, a total lie, as Johnny was breaking his back and risking his a**, down in the boiler room!
Reunited for the first time since their Academy Award winning "All the Kings Men" Broderick Crawford and John Ireland really click as friends and sometime enemies Johnny & Steve who really seem to enjoy interacting with each other as well as with actress Ellen Drew.
The film in itself is nothing to write home about but the acting is well above what you would have expected from a B-movie of filler like "Cargo to Capetown". There's also the gorgeous and at the same time easy to approach, by everyone on board, Ellen Drew who for some strange reason never made it as big in Hollywood as some actresses with far less good looks and acting talent then she had.
Steve still needing a chief mechanic for his some 3,000 mile trip to Capetown from Palembang Sumatra, with a load of fuel oil, get's his good friend and partner in mischief crack-a-Jack boiler mechanic Johnny good and drunk, in celebrating his trip to Capetwon, and shanghai's him aboard. With Johnny aboard the Mokava and out cold everything is in ship-shop shape for Steve to make his haul of flue oil to Capetwon until two unexpected events happen. Steve's former flame and now Johnny's fiancée the pretty Kitty Mellar, Eileen Drew, bullies her way on-board, at gunpoint, to revive her drunken boyfriend and future husband Johnny as well as get him off the ship before it goes out to sea. There's also 12 year-old Rik, Robert Espinoza, Steve's Sumatran houseboy and adopted son talking Steve into letting him go on the trip to Capetwon with him.
The trip turns into a nightmare far all aboard with Steve and Johnny at each others throat's over the beautiful Kitty who's keeping from her fiancée Johnny that his friend Steve was her former lover. There's also the problem of Ric who's always getting himself into trouble, like almost getting crushed to death by a flying oil barrel, who in the end almost causes both Steve & Kitty to go overboard in trying to rescue him.
Things come to a head on the troubled and what seems like jinxed Mokava when ship-hand Rhys, Ted De Corsia, who for some reason has it in for Captain Steve tried to kill him by pushing him , as he was in the process of saving a drowning shipmate, into the gooey oil tank in the Morkava's hull. Thrown into the brig for the duration of the trip to Capetown Rhys, in an effort to get even with Steve, spills the beans to Johnny about Steve and Kitty's secret past. And even worse in that Steve had Kitty on-board just to rekindle his relationship with her, a total lie, as Johnny was breaking his back and risking his a**, down in the boiler room!
Reunited for the first time since their Academy Award winning "All the Kings Men" Broderick Crawford and John Ireland really click as friends and sometime enemies Johnny & Steve who really seem to enjoy interacting with each other as well as with actress Ellen Drew.
The film in itself is nothing to write home about but the acting is well above what you would have expected from a B-movie of filler like "Cargo to Capetown". There's also the gorgeous and at the same time easy to approach, by everyone on board, Ellen Drew who for some strange reason never made it as big in Hollywood as some actresses with far less good looks and acting talent then she had.