Tue 2 Feb 2010
A Review by Dan Stumpf: RICHARD SALE – Not Too Narrow, Not Too Deep [Book & Film].
Posted by Steve under Films: Drama/Romance , Reviews[7] Comments
RICHARD SALE – Not Too Narrow, Not Too Deep. Simon & Schuster, hardcover, 1936. Paperback reprints: Armed Services Edition #S-7, 1940s. Popular Library 247, 1950.
Strange Cargo. MGM, 1940. Joan Crawford, Clark Gable, Ian Hunter, Peter Lorre, Paul Lukas, Albert Dekker, J. Edward Bromberg, Eduardo Ciannelli. Screenplay: Lawrence Hazard, based on the novel Not Too Narrow, Not Too Deep, by Richard Sale. Director: Frank Borzage.
I’m a deeply spiritual person, in my own shallow, materialistic way, so as the Holidays drew near, I elected to read/ watch something morally uplifting and settled on Richard Sale’s Not Too Narrow, Not Too Deep and the movie made from it, Strange Cargo.
Sale’s book is a taut, gritty, down-and-dirty parable of redemption, dealing Fate to ten convicts trying to escape from a tropical prison hell, written in spare, evocative prose, and filled with action and suspense that somehow doesn’t cheapen the story. It’s also populated with a colorful cast of well-wrought characters, some of whom surprised me from time to time.
Unlike most parables, Narrow doesn’t shirk from things that were considered shocking in its time, like homosexuality, and pedophilia (still pretty shocking today, but no longer taboo in literature). In short, this is a one-of-a-kind thing, and I recommend it to anyone looking for a good read a little off the beaten path.
A few years after it was published, Narrow got the MGM treatment, released as Strange Cargo, and should have been an unmitigated disaster, what with Joan Crawford written into the story (by Anita Loos, no less) to redo her Sadie Thompson bit, Clark Gable as an unrepentant and very virile heel, plus a cast of familiar character actors including Albert Dekker, Peter Lorre, Eduardo Cianelli, J. Edward Bromberg and Ian Hunter as the mysterious figure who somehow dominates the action despite Gable and Crawford.
In fact, this is surprisingly a very effective film, thanks mostly to director Frank Borzage, who steers it deftly between schmaltz and pretentiousness, getting powerful performances from the stars but never letting them run away with the story. And there’s a fine bit from Paul Lukas as a satanic convict not in the book. The scene where he parts company with Hunter and the rest of the group, like an angel cast out of heaven, is one of those creepy, unforgettable movie moments that carry real dramatic weight.
As a footnote, I might add that despite some cheap sops to the censors, this film was condemned by the Catholic Legion of Decency, I think because it depicts God as a nice guy who tries to help out when he can.
February 3rd, 2010 at 11:48 am
I haven’t read the book but have seen the film and the scene where Paul Lukas realizes who Ian Hunter is and rejects him certainly is a stunner like Dan says.
February 3rd, 2010 at 4:22 pm
The book is excellent.
February 3rd, 2010 at 10:52 pm
A couple of good recommendations like this makes me wish I’d read the book myself, sometime over the past 50 years.
And if I’ve seen the movie, I surely don’t remember it, and if the scene you’re talking about, Ray, is the stunner you and Dan say it is, I’m sure that I would…!
Unless, of course, I was too young to appreciate it. (I was, once.)
February 11th, 2010 at 7:42 pm
This is a great book and movie from a writer who was both a pulp master but also a bestselling writer, producer, screenwriter, and film director.
And, Steve, the scene with Lukas and Hunter is a stunner.
Incidentally Anita Loos was Sale’s mother-in-law. He married her daughter Mary, herself a writer who collaborator with her husband.
Sale is an interesting writer who is under-appreciated today. Among others, his LAZARUS #7 is one of the high lights of the screwball school with a still stunning solution/motive. Among other things he also produced and created the legendary television series YANCY DERRINGER.
Other novels include PASSING STRANGE, BENEFIT PERFORMANCE, THE OSCAR, FOR THE PRESIDENT’S EYES ONLY, and WHITE BUFFALO.
October 20th, 2010 at 5:33 pm
I’ve read the novel twice and recommend frequently. As a teacher of sociology and anthropology, I tend to be a cross cultural agnostic. That said I love this story of redemption and enjoyed the movie.
December 2nd, 2017 at 1:18 pm
I have watched the movie several times and I never get tired of watching it again!
I have not read the book yet. In fact I was looking to buy it (why I got here)…
The movie is great and I wished they had made it with No interference from anyone (censors) especially since the catholic church (or anyone else) has any monopoly on God (nor anything “holy”)!
As for the movie:
Ian Hunter as Cambreau is great. He shows even to the lowest member of society (a prisoner) how to find God in their own hearts (and not in a wooden cross etc.)and when the time came for some of them to die, they went happy and saved. (well except for Lukas’ character who resisted God and said… “it was for the sheep”)…
Gabel and Crawford are always great (in any role) so that’s just given. They both resisted Hunter at first too but…
The movie has such a captivating atmosphere that you don’t want to miss a second of it. I highly recommend it.
Although the character played by Ian Hunter (who entered the prison camp very strangely) may seem fictional but in reality people like him do exist around the world! They sometimes show up in the right moment and help out and then they’re gone!(some may call them as guardian angels)but they mostly look very human…
So this book or the movie is not so far from reality.
The ending was kind of happy too despite the fact that Gable’s character (Verne) voluntarily went back to prison to serve the rest of his time, but Joan Crawford (Julie) went along with him back to the island despite the fact that she as a singer in a café got kicked out of the island by the orders of the warden who accused her to be a bad influence on the island and for finding Gable (an escaped convict) in her room atop that café!
One of the last scenes is a great performance by Gable when he tries to kill Cambreau by throwing him off the ship into a stormy sea… the regret and the redemption follow:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-AajhoZJg4
December 23rd, 2018 at 1:29 pm
Great book to screen comparison! Well done, Dan!