hollywood and the home of hype and glamor and the search for profit and be scarcely rule by spiritual value and and so it come a no surprise that it attempt at investigation of the spiritual life be thin and often silly ( good to go far afield to the film of bresson and dreyer and rossellini and bergman and for probe depiction of the spirituality ) . strange cargo be no exception . this odd hybrid of adventure film and love story and religious parable trivialize the very insights it try to communicate . that a figure of providence and salvation would work to match verne ( clark gable at his most cockily mannered and self regard ) and julie ( joan crawford and snarling and spit out every other word in an attempt to be the queen of tough dame ) seem ludicrous at best . be this the patron saint of the star system at work and match war ego before send them off to further penal servitude on the m g m lot . but . . . there be good support performance here and and visually arrest moment represent the shadowy prison barrack while the escape boat by moonlight and or against a painterly cloudscape while julie walk along the seafront a the wind whip up while julie and monsieur pig ( peter lorre ) bargaining for verne freedom a the storm build while an unusually ennoble gay prison romance between two convict . . . above all and there be paul lukas dignify and detach performance a hessler and a murderer who can appreciate cambreau virtue and yet turn his back on him . in the film most arresting moment and hessler and have leave cambreau and stand outside the cabin . we hear the wind through the jungle and see the shadow on his face and which convey a moment of fear and self doubt . then he exit into the night . in this moment and hessler achieves an ambiguity and depth and existential strength that none of the other character manage to achieve . be the film secret that it deep sympathy be ally with hessler .