User Reviews

***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.

Lots of excitement in this reunion of Broderick Crawford and John Ireland from the previous year's Oscar winning Best Picture. Crawford and Ireland are old buddies who are reunited, and get into all sorts of windy cold water when Ireland, lusting over Crawford's fiancée Ellen Drew, sets captain Crawford's tanker out to see while Crawford is passed out, with Drew aboard. The antagonism between Crawford and Ireland grows when Drew, previously furious with Ireland, begins to soften to him by his caring for the injured Robert Espinoza, the teen Mexican cabin boy. Espinoza is initially funny and endearing, but becomes the heart and soul of the story as his heroic actions lead to near tragedy. A good actor with a large handful of credits, he steals the audience's heart and every scene he's in. Edgar "Uncle Joe" Buchanan isn't moving kind of slow as another crew member, tough and irascible, yet basically decent.

Not on the A scale of "All the King's Men" but well done nine the less with great photography and special effects, it's only deficiency is a sometimes implausible plot that comes together like good weather after a stormy night at sea. The three leads are very good, and Crawford toned down the big bully image he had from his Oscar winning role and the same year's "Born Yesterday". Drew is lovely but tough, able to survive through her own courage and heart in a man's world, certainly not in the way aboard this rusty decaying boat. This plot has been done over and over, but it's fortunately quite different from the often redone Warner Brothers script of "Tiger Shark" which became the subject of half a dozen other movies, most notably "Manpower". This keeps the audience interested with non-stop intrigue, and is a nice little obscure discovery worth spending a fady moving 80 minutes with.

Broderick Crawford (Johnny Phelan), John Ireland (Steve Conway), Ellen Drew (Kitty Mellar), Edgar Buchanan (Sam Bennett), Ted de Corsia (Rhys), Robert Espinoza (Rik), Leonard Strong (Singh), King Donovan (Sparks), Gregory Gaye (Kroll), Peter Mamakos (Gomez), Frank Reicher (Judge Van Meeger), Tom Stevenson (Cariday), Stanley Andrews (Captain Richards), Trevor Bardette (Olferi), Sven Hugo Borg (captain), Brian O'Hara, Richard Alexander, Dick Curtis, Glenn Thompson, Peter Virgo, Ted Jordan, James Logan (sailors), Al Hill (Shanahan), Harry Cording (oil wiper), Leon Lontoc (Javanese announcer), Charles Sullivan, Teddy Mangean (seamen), Jack Overman (tough sailor), Alex Montoya (native loading boss), Rodd Redwing (native cab driver), Leo C. Richmond (Javanese jailer), Gene Stutenroth (Jack), Mickey Simpson (scar-faced sailor), Harry Wilkson (deck crewman), Peter Seal, George Barrows, Lloyd Ford, David Newell, Joe Palmer.

Director: EARL McEVOY. Screenplay: Lionel Houser. Photography: Charles Lawton jr. Film editor: William Lyon. Art director: Cary Odell. Set decorator: Frank Tuttle. Gowns: Jean Louis. Make-up: Gordon Hubbard. Hair styles: Helen Hunt. Music composed by George Duning. Music director: Morris Stoloff. Camera operator: Archie R. Dalzell. Grip: Eddie Blaisdell. Gaffer: Howard Robinson. Still photographs: Don Christie. Script supervisor: Donna M. Norridge. Production manager: Jack Fier. Assistant director: Sam Nelson. Sound recording: Frank Goodwin. Producer: Lionel Houser.

Copyright 14 March 1950 by Columbia Pictures Corp. New York opening at the Palace: 30 March 1950. U.S. release: April 1950. U.K. release: 11 September 1950. Australian release: 17 November 1950. 7,659 feet. 85 minutes.

SYNOPSIS (provided by Columbia's publicity department): "A story of adventure on the high seas in which a captain sails a battered oil tanker to Capetown in spite of hurricane, fire, and a rebellious shanghaied crew."

COMMENT: No All the King's Men, but an entertaining adventure yarn with a mighty interesting cast, led by Broderick Crawford, John Ireland, Ellen Drew, Edgar Buchanan and Ted de Corsia. This captivating "B" was not only directed with skill but splendidly photographed. There are plenty of seaboard thrills for the fans. And just look at that extremely large cast of support players!

Brod Crawford is fresh off his Oscar win, so he gets top billing in CARGO TO CAPETOWN but he's really playing a second lead role. The main character is played by John Ireland who is third-billed.

Ireland is perfectly cast as a no-nonsense captain who is hired to complete a voyage hauling barrels of oil to Cape Town. He will be sailing through patches of rough weather, so he needs to assemble a crew of dependable men, and it is essential that he find a good engineer. When he runs into his old pal Crawford at a waterfront bar, it looks as if his problems may be solved.

Crawford was a severe alcoholic in real life, and he's playing a character with great fondness for booze. It wouldn't surprise me if he was actually drunk in many of these scenes...especially the part where he tumbles up, not down, a flight of steps trying to board the Mokara vessel at the beginning of the story. Lucky for him, Mr. Ireland is there to pick him up more than once.

The leading lady in this picture is Ellen Drew who was starting to look middle aged by this point of her career. But of course, she is still glamorous. However, it does require a suspension of disbelief when she is caught in a typhoon on the deck of the ship and manages to keep her hair almost perfectly styled. That's Hollywood for you.

The heart of the story is a romance drama in which Ireland and Crawford both get tangled up in a love triangle with Miss Drew. Crawford is planning to stay on land, because he's supposed to marry Drew. But since he is needed to work on Ireland's ship, he has been shanghaied. When Drew finds out Ireland kidnapped her fiance, she hurries on to the ship before it leaves the Dutch East Indies to reclaim Crawford and take him home. She pulls a gun on Ireland to let him know she means business.

Of course he overpowers her, and she ends up remaining on board for the whole journey. Complicating matters is the fact that Drew was once involved with Ireland and things went south. She still has feelings for the guy, but she's committed to Crawford who is in the dark about her past. It is implied she was a prostitute.

There's an interesting subplot involving an orphan boy (Robert Espinoza) who is befriended by Ireland. Despite his inexperience, he gets a job assisting the men while they're at sea. The boy's dream is to become a captain one day like Ireland. When the typhoon hits, the kid gets tossed around on the deck. As the storm rages, he ends up falling below, where barrels of oil have come loose and roll on top of him. He is severely injured and his bandaged leg will require an operation.

This causes Ireland to make a decision to stray off course to a nearby island where a doctor can be sought to help the boy. But the youngster is afraid this will mean the ship won't make it to South Africa on schedule, so he tries to kill himself. He is prevented from committing suicide, but dies a short time later anyway. Heavy stuff!

While all of this is going on in Ireland's quarters, Crawford is down below and learns from a crew member (Ted de Corsia) that Ireland and Drew share a past. Crawford, in between drinks, starts to panic that Drew will choose Ireland over him. He confronts Ireland who insists that what he and the woman had is over and there's no going back.

Meanwhile there are other mishaps that occur. One incident involves a crew member who nearly dies after falling into a vat of oil. Ireland and de Corsia pull the man out, but then de Corsia, who has issues of his own, tries to kill Ireland and winds up in the brig awaiting trial.

At the same time Crawford decides to rush his marriage to Drew, which Ireland will officiate as captain. They couple do exchange vows, but it's clear Drew is already regretting her decision. She doesn't have time to dwell on the mistake, though, when a fire breaks out. It is not a typical fire, since with all that oil stored below, the ship is now a powder keg waiting to explode.

In a climatic sequence, Ireland and Crawford put on fire suits and head into the blaze to get at the root of the problem. It looks like Crawford will probably die to facilitate a happy ending for Ireland and Drew, but he doesn't. However, he is critically injured and while recovering has time to reconsider his marriage. As the Mokara pulls into the harbor at Cape Town, Crawford does the honorable thing and tells Drew he is going to give her an annulment so she can be with Ireland, since she loves him more. Crawford will be able to console himself with some cheap liquor.