S.O.S. - Cargo en flammes

SYNOPSIS: A tramp steamer outruns a typhoon to Capetown, South Africa, with a disgruntled crew and a love triangle between the Captain, the Chief Engineer and his fiancé.

CONCEPT IN RELATION TO THE VIEWER: Second chances and re-thinking past mistakes. Macho defeats love in the short-term, but compassion triumphs in the end. A trip back to simpler times when everything was black and white, literally.

PROS AND CONS: This film was supposedly made as a follow up to "All The King's Men", which also starred Crawford and Ireland. "All The King's Men" got a lot of Oscar buzz, so the studios thought they could make lightening strike twice. They sort of missed the mark. This is a competent film, but can hardly be considered great film making.

This film rehashes the tried and true cinema gimmick of trapping adults in a confined space so they must face their past and confront the present. There is a bit of a fantasy element in the concept of a world in which tramp steamers were the semi-trucks of their day, ferrying oil and cargo across the ocean highways of the world. Crewed by men with checkered pasts who lived a nomadic lifestyle. It probably isn't very accurately portrayed in this film, but it does make you wonder.

The camera tends to linger on Ellen Drew's character a lot and she is working her "Betty Davis Eyes" as much as possible. The script and plot lines of the film seem a bit strained from time to time. The roots of the past love affair between the captain and the fiancé are never explained. The small boy that longs to go to sea only to be crushed by oil cans in the storm doesn't really make a lot of sense and his acting is terrible.

This is not a very deep film. The basic concept is how folks forced together on a ship in the middle of the ocean have to work as a team and overcome their past differences. Nothing more, nothing less.

In the wake of the critical and popular success of All the King's Men, Harry Cohn at Columbia decided to use the stars of All the King's Men, John Ireland and Broderick Crawford in a quick follow up film. In the previous film they were rivals over Joanne Dru. Ms. Dru decided wisely not to do this film so another Dru, Ellen Drew, became the object of their rivalry in Cargo to Capetown.

Films like Cargo to Capetown may have been the reason why Broderick Crawford never really exploited the prestige his Oscar should have given him for a better career. It's not that Cargo to Capetown is a horribly bad film, but it's the kind of stuff that was being seen on that new medium of television.

Ireland is the ship's captain and Crawford the chief engineer and Ireland has a cargo to deliver from Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, to Capetown or lose his freighter. The last thing he needs is romantic complications, but when Drew stays on board he's got trouble my friends.

Crawford gets to do a great drunk act and I've a suspicion he wasn't acting. Crawford back in the day was one of the great tipplers in Hollywood history. When Ireland has to get him back on board the ship in a state of inebriation, it looks really convincing.

Nothing terribly special in Cargo to Capetown, don't go out of your way to see it.

If you like Broderick Crawford and his special kind of acting you will enjoy this film. This story is not the very best, but Crawford playing the role of Chief Engineer ( Johnny Phelan) on a cargo ship headed for Capetown gives you plenty of romance, drama and lots of problems on board a cargo ship. John Ireland, ( Steve Conway ) is the captain of the ship and also has one woman aboard his ship named Kitty Mellar, ( Ellen Drew) who is romantically involved with Johnny Phelan. However, Kitty over a period of time on board the ship falls in love with Steve Conway who rejects her statements of loving him and even marries her aboard his ship to Johnny Phelan. Edgar Buchanan, (Sam Bennett) gave a great supporting role in this tale of a cargo ship at sea with many problems and mostly between men a one woman.

John Ireland made a long and decent living playing in "B" films. He never made it big beyond his Oscar nomination, ironically enough, with his co-star in this film, Brodrick Crawford. This story, which focuses on a merchant ship of which Ireland is the Captain, has to take a cargo and the Chief Engineer, Crawford has decided to get married to Ireland's ex-girlfriend, Ellen Drew. A plan to Shanghai Crawford goes sour when Drew, the ex-lady friend remains aboard and proceeds to get re-involved with Ireland. It gets hairy as Crawford is fed false information about his old pal and plots his demise. However, in the end, Crawford winds up sacrificing himself to reconcile the two star-crossed lovers, Drew and Ireland. All in all, not a great film but typical of 50s potboilers, those films which were made to be fillers between the "big shows," in those halcyon days before the invasion of the glass tubes into American living rooms.