Strange Cargo (1940) is a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer feature film starring Joan Crawford and Clark Gable in a story about a group of fugitive prisoners from a French penal colony. The screenplay by Lawrence Hazard was based upon the 1936 novel, Not Too Narrow, Not Too Deep, by Richard Sale. The film was directed by Frank Borzage and produced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. The film is the eighth and last film pairing of Gable and Crawford. Julie (Crawford), a cafe entertainer in a town near a French penal colony, meets Verne (Gable), a prisoner on wharf duty. Verne escapes and goes to Julie's room but is apprehended after Mi'sieu Pig (Peter Lorre) reports him, and is returned to prison. Julie is fired for consorting with a prisoner. At the prison, Moll (Albert Dekker) has masterminded a jailbreak and takes Cambreau (Ian Hunter), Telez (Eduardo Ciannelli), Hessler (Paul Lukas), Flaubert (J. Edward Bromberg), Dufond (John Arledge)with him. Verne joins the escapees, taking Julie with him. The gentle Cambreau exerts a spiritual influence over the others.