Carga Proibida

"Forbidden Cargo" is a very good crime film. However, it is vastly different from an American crime movie of the era...much of it because instead of action and snappy dialog, this one seems very staid and subdued. This is NOT a complaint. While some of the camerawork is actually reminiscent of film noir, the overall style and energy level are not.

The heroes of this film are not police but members of the Inland Revenue...the British version of the Customs Department. It begins with some very audacious criminals bringing in contraband while using British Navy uniforms and a duck (an amphibious boat). After cracking that case, one of the men captured for this crime mentions that he would like to have his case dropped IF he tells them about a shipment of drugs about to come into the UK. However, before any deal can be made, this man is murdered...and the Inland Revenue sends an undercover agent to France to follow what few leads they have.

As I mentioned before, this really isn't a typical action film....but it is very good when it comes to realism and excitement. For fans of crime flicks, this is one well worth your time.

I watched this on the talking pictures channel as there was nothing of quality elsewhere, and was I in for a very watchable treat. It had a sterling cast ranging from Joyce Grenfell as a scatty upper class birdwatcher through to Nigel Patrick as a dogged customs detective prepares to risk his life to get the smugglers. If you grew up with quality such as this, you'll find the modern "movies", dull and predictable by comparison. I gave it a 10.

Nigel Patrick ("Kenyon") works quite well here as a customs and excise inspector who is on the trail of a glamorous brother and sister (Elizabeth Sellars & Terence Morgan) whom he and boss Jack Warner suspect might be involved in a big drug smuggling enterprise. As the plot thickens, he begins to fall a little for the femme fatale and things all get rather too complicated. It features a fun contribution from Joyce Grenfell as the slightly eccentric tweeter (birds) "Lady Flavia' and keep an eye out for a fleeting visit by Michael Hordern. The writing is a bit bland however, and the investigative sides of the story a bit procedural - but the performances are decent enough and the photography helps the drama along well. Worth a watch.

It doesn't give much indication in the beginning of what is to be, but after the first smuggling incident with the bird woman, an interesting drama starts to build up. Nigel Patrick is the elegant investigator, who soon finds himself up against a professional team of gangsters, where Theodore Bikel has a key role, first appearing as a charming musician with his honeyed voice. No one can suspect anything about what this intriguing character actually is working with, while Jack Warner on his way to alcoholism alarmingly reacts against him from the start, which should raise the suspicion that he feels stuck in a racket that he cannot handle. It is difficult to suspect his sister Elizabeth Sellers of having any part of it, and she actually ultimately saves or tries to save the situation. There are some impressing diving sequences as well, but the main thing is the very intelligent plot and story. It's a great and efficient criminal drama of drug traffic in the early 50s and certainly much ahead of its time.

Leonard Maltin has described this film as 'a modest affair enlivened by a solid cast.' Modest it certainly is and in common with all of director Harold French's output, is sorely in need of enlivening. The film's title promises much but the film itself alas delivers little.

Excellent Nigel Patrick with his trademark trilby is always good value and there is a delightful cameo from Joyce Grenfell as an aristocratic ornithologist. The dastardly drug smuggler is of course a European and is played by Theodore Bikel.

The Inspector Kenyon of Mr. Patrick foils a ring of brandy smugglers but then has to navigate more treacherous waters when tracking international drug smugglers to Cannes, not forgetting to pack his dinner suit of course. We see so little of the playground of the rich however that it might as well be Walton-on-Thames. There is a tantalisingly brief scene in a casino which could have been filmed anywhere. He dices with death in a singularly unexciting underwater sequence at the hands of sneaky Terence Morgan and manages to appeal to the better nature of Morgan's sister, the far from femme fatale Elisabeth Sellars, thereby preventing thirty pounds of heroin from wrecking the lives of a legion of dope fiends.

This is a quaint, harmless period piece which simply lacks an 'edge' and is ultimately defeated by its 'Englishness'. The subject matter warrants a far grittier treatment.

Depressingly, it is timeless in one respect only. It is a grim reminder that although the occasional battle against the evil of drugs may be won, the war is well and truly lost.