Yellow Cargo

This movie is showing on one of the channels that I have on direct tv. So far, the movie seems pretty dull and cheesy. The one thing that I do like about it is that it's from the 30s, and the acting and costumes are pretty nice.

It's a pretty good B movie starring Conrad Nagel as an Immigration Service agent trying to track down a gang that is smuggling Chinese into the country. His cover story is that he is a Broadway actor trying to break into the movies. His path crosses that of Eleanor Hunt, a reporter trying to get a story about an independent producer; all roads lead to the same end.

If it looks like a serial cut into a movie, it's because it's written and directed by Crane Wilbur, who also has a sizable role. He was the nephew of Tyrone Power Sr., hence the cousin of 20th Century-Fox's superstar Tyrone Power. He first appeared on the Broadway stage in 1903 and in his first movie in 1910. He was the male lead of THE PERILS OF PAULINE and eventually went back on the stage, but returned to the movies as a writer and director. That phase of his career lasted through 1962 and he died in 1973, aged 86.

This was the first of four movies in which Nagel and Miss Hunt starred in for Grand National. Nagel's movie career was on the downslide, while Miss Hunt's casting can be attributed to the fact that she was married to George Hirliman, the movie's producer. She's pretty good, and all four movies she starred in with Nagel are fast-moving Bs. They didn't lead anywhere, though. Mr. Nagel returned to Broadway and radio work. Miss Hunt played a few minor roles and retired.

This public domain movie is also known as SINFUL CARGO and when I saw that title, I was expecting a salacious little exploitation film. Instead, it was a cheap little film that was dull and probably not worth anyone's time.

Conrad Nagel and Eleanor Hunt star in this dud. He is a federal agent investigation the smuggling of illegal Chinese aliens into the country and she is an annoying reporter with a secret. She is assisted by the world's stupidest and most annoying camera man, played by Vince Barnett. Barnett was obviously included as comic relief, but he was neither funny nor a relief when he entered a scene--just a one-joke irritant. In the end, there is a final confrontation with the gang boss that is among the dullest and most anticlimactic in film history. Then, in a "clever" twist, we learn the female reporter's secret and the camera, thankfully, fades.

The film has bad writing, acting and direction. It practically screams "SLOPPY" throughout. For a similar plot though done competently, try seeing Ronald Reagan in SECRET SERVICE OF THE AIR--a B-film actually worth your time. Don't say I didn't warn you.

The first of a series of four "G-Man" films produced by George A. Hirliman's Condor Productions (with all four starring Conrad Nagel and Hirliman's wife, actress Eleanor Hunt, in continuing roles), "Yellow Cargo" has G-Man (nee FBI) Alan O'Connor (Conrad Nagel) being "borrowed" by the United States Immigration Service to track down a smuggling ring on the West Coast, which is engaged in bringing in Orientals to the U.S. in violation of the Chinese Exclusion Act.

O'Connor is met at the airport by reporter Bobbie Reynolds (Eleanor Hunt), who mistakes him for a New York actor in search of a movie job in Hollywood. O'Connor falls in with her plan to introduce him to some producers, so he can get a line on the leaders of the smuggling ring, who are operating under the guise of an independent motion picture company. Vince Barnett is on hand for comedy relief as "Bulbs" Callahan ('Vince Barnett' ), a bone-head news photographer.

Be prepared for a low budget film, but it moves fast and is watchable if you like movies from the 30's.