The supernatural idea inherent in the book "Not Too Narrow, Not Too Deep" has been pretty thoroughly obscured without actually being removed from the long and violent melodrama "Strange Cargo," which was unloaded yesterday at the Capitol Theatre. As it stands, the allegory is certainly not too deep, but it does seem a bit too narrow to accommodate itself readily to the broad and brutal sweep of the penny-dreadful narrative. Another technical disadvantage arises from the star system by which Clark Gable and Joan Crawford must take the picture away from its most important character, the mysterious stranger whose shadow has not passed here since "The Passing of the Third Floor Back." Due to their concerted efforts, the stranger is no more and no less impressive than an actor with third billing by the name of Ian Hunter.

Yet if such a role must exist at all amid the conventional terrors of a jungle-and-sea-escape from a cinematic tropical prison it should be much more portentous than Mr. Hunter has been allowed to make it. The gentle and forgiving spirit known as Cambreau is hardly the sort of character to play second-fiddle even to Miss Crawford and Mr. Gable, and the picture is no better than a passable tropical melodrama in consequence of his unnatural suppression. All the others we have met dozens of times before in similar circumstances — Peter Lorre, the commandant's stool pigeon; Paul Lukas, the cynical thief and philosophical worldling; Albert Dekker, the brutal killer, who, it appears, nevertheless has a heart; Eduardo Ciannelli, the religious fanatic, and so on. But when Mr. Hunter walks into the picture, a miraculous thirty-sixth prisoner to silence the gate-checker's clamor, something more should have been made of him than simply an unaccountable stooge to cover Mr. Gable's amorous adventurings with Miss Crawford in the town cabaret.

We do not know who this character Cambreau may be, and we dare not define him, for it is evident that, although he flees with the escaping prisoners, shares their hardships in the jungle, suffers hunger and thirst with them in an open boat during a long calm at sea, he is not a natural man. His uncanny directional sense, his prophetic attitude toward human and meteorological events, his accurate foreknowledge of how everything is going to turn out (one piece of insight which an experienced moviegoer may well share with him) all argue for some super-terrestrial origin. Yet the ultimate result of his labors and teachings in behalf of the erring mortals who surround him is the usual melodramatic ending, with Gable penitently going back to finish his prison term and with Joan obviously planning to wait for him. Anything else, of course, would have been a miracle which even the miraculous Cambreau could hardly have been expected to accomplish.

Film Daily (1940):

    Here is a good, raw, stark melodrama which holds suspense from the start....The acting is high-grade with Joan Crawford giving her best performance to date.

Variety (1940):

    Miss Crawford is provided with a particularly meaty role as the hardened dance-hall gal who falls hard for the tough convict. Role is a departure from those handed her during past several years by her studio, and reminiscent of her earlier work that carried her to popularity originally. Although the picture has its many deficiencies, the Crawford characterization will give studio execs idea of proper casting of her talents for the future.

Sci-fi, Fantasy, and Horror site review. (1999)