Hell's Cargo on AllMovie

Filmed in 1935, the British Hell's Cargo finally received a US release in 1939, capitalizing on the recent outbreak of war in Europe. Most of the story takes place on a cargo ship, slowly inching its way through treacherous waters with a cargo consisting of a top-secret poison gas. When the ship's intoxicated doctor reveals the nature of the cargo to a good-time girl in a foreign port, chaos ensues, culminating in the death of the treacherous doctor at the hands of the ship's three commanding officers: Englishman Falcon (Kim Peacock), Frenchman Lestallieur (Walter Rilla), and Russian Tomasov (Robert Newton). The question: if a murder is committed in to maintain the Peace of the World, can it truly be considered murder? Hell's Cargo was based on a story by French writer/director Leo Joannon, whose later seafaring efforts included Laurel & Hardy's Atoll K (1951).