La sirena del Congo

La sirena del Congo (1942)

White Cargo

Harry Witzel administra una plantación de caucho perdida en una selva africana. Recibe con poco entusiasmo a su nuevo ayudante, Mr Langford, con la certeza de que éste no soportará la vida en la plantación. A pesar de las advertencias de Witzel, el recién llegado sucumbirá a los encantos de Tondelayo, una hermosa, a la par que mezquina, nativa.

Fecha de estreno
1942-12-12
TMDB
6.2 / 10 (8)
Duración
1 h 28 min
Géneros
Aventura, Drama
Director
Richard Thorpe

Reparto

Curiosidades

  • Presupuesto: 570 mil US$

White Cargo is a 1942 American drama film starring Hedy Lamarr and Walter Pidgeon, and directed by Richard Thorpe. Released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, it is based on the 1923 London and Broadway hit play by Leon Gordon, which was in turn adapted from the 1912 novel Hell's Playground by Ida Vera Simonton. The play had already been made into a British part-talkie, also titled White Cargo, with Maurice Evans in 1930. The 1942 film, unlike the play, begins in what was then the present-day, before unfolding in flashback.

Production

In 1930, Gordon sold the film rights to British International Pictures (BIP) for £15,000. The company then decided to make a sound version and paid Gordon an extra £10,000 for talking rights. The British film version followed the play closely. MGM bought the film rights from BIP and hired Gordon to adapt his own play.

According to the Production Code Administration section of the file on the film in the Motion Picture Association of America collection at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the miscegenation element - a white man becoming intimately involved with a native African woman - of Leon Gordon's story caused great censorship difficulties, beginning with the U.S.

In the play, Tondelayo is described throughout as a "negress." The March 1930 New York release of the 1929 British film, directed by J. B. Williams and Arthur Barnes, starring Leslie Faber, in the U.S. violated the spirit of Hays' decree.

As noted in articles included in the MPAA/PCA files, in accordance with the MPPDA's 1924 agreement of self-imposed censorship, MPPDA head Will Hays deemed the play unacceptable for screen adaptation under the Motion Picture Production Code, effectively banning any studios from producing it.

Tondelayo's ethnicity was therefore changed for the movie, turned into an exotic Arab. In Gordon's original script this fact was to be revealed at the end, but the censor requested the information be revealed earlier. To comply, it was introduced as part of the marriage controversy, which is far more over Tondelayo's character and behavior than her race.

Leer en Wikipedia · Texto de Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Datos de Wikidata.

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