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2.3/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 2.3/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Le secret du cargo remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you are the kind of person who enjoys sitting in a dark room watching dusty films from 1929, then yes, Le secret du cargo is worth your time. It is a silent movie, so don’t go in expecting car chases or snappy dialogue. It is for the crowd that likes to see how movies were basically invented on the fly a hundred years ago.
If you hate black and white or get bored when a scene lasts more than ten seconds without an explosion, you will probably hate this. It moves at its own pace, which is mostly 'slow' with bursts of 'very confused.'
The whole thing centers on a singer named Miralda. She is played by Jeanine Lequesne, who has these massive, expressive eyes that seem to be doing about 80% of the acting in the movie. She gets kidnapped by three guys who the credits call 'vile impresarios.' I love that. They aren't just bad guys; they are vile.
Enter Commissioner Delcamps. He is the hero, played by Jean-François Martial. He looks like a man who has never told a joke in his entire life. He’s determined to save her, and this leads him to a cargo ship where the 'secret' is supposed to be.
Honestly, the secret isn't that shocking. It involves objects that look like very ordinary boxes. But back then, I guess a box could be very dramatic if you lit it correctly.
There is this one scene where Delcamps puts on a disguise to sneak around. It is basically just a fake beard and a different hat. Nobody recognizes him. It is the least convincing disguise I have ever seen, even compared to some of the stuff in The $1,000,000 Reward. It made me laugh out loud because he looks exactly like himself, just fuzzier.
The boat scenes are actually pretty cool. You can tell they were filming on a real ship because the way the light hits the water looks authentic. It’s not like those fake studio sets you see in Thunderclap. You can almost smell the salt and the old engine oil.
I noticed a small detail in the background of the singer's dressing room. There’s a poster on the wall that is slightly peeling off. It’s a tiny thing, but it made the world feel real. Like it wasn't just a set built five minutes before the actors walked in.
The 'dramatic twists' mentioned in the plot are mostly people walking into rooms at the wrong time. It’s very theatrical. At one point, a character drops a letter, and the camera lingers on it for so long that I thought the movie had frozen. It’s just how they did suspense back then, I guess.
It’s a bit clunky. The transition cards (the text on screen) sometimes stay up for way too long. I finished reading them and had time to wonder if I left the oven on before the movie started again. But there is a charm to it. It feels more personal than something like The King of Kings, which felt like it was trying too hard to be a 'big' movie.
This movie just wants to be a fun adventure. It doesn't always succeed, but it tries. The way the actors use their hands to express everything is like watching a very intense dance. Sometimes they overdo it. One guy reacts to a knock on the door like someone just told him the world was ending.
If you’ve seen High Stakes, you know that these 1920s mysteries can get a bit repetitive. Le secret du cargo avoids that by having a lot of different locations. We go from fancy offices to the docks to the inside of a cramped cabin on a ship. It keeps your eyes busy even if your brain is ahead of the plot.
I liked it more than I thought I would. It’s not a masterpiece, but it’s a good 'rainy afternoon' movie. The ending feels a bit rushed, like they realized they were running out of time and needed to wrap everything up in two minutes. Everyone is suddenly safe and the bad guys are caught. It’s very convenient.
I think the director, Maurice Mariaud, really liked filming people looking through keyholes. There are at least three scenes of people spying on each other. It gives the whole movie a bit of a voyeuristic vibe, which fits the mystery theme.
If you're looking for something that feels like Night Life but with more boats and fewer parties, this is it. It’s a small, weird piece of history. It’s imperfect, the beards are fake, and the mystery is a bit thin. But it has soul. And sometimes that’s better than a perfect movie that feels like it was made by a machine.
One last thing: look out for the scene where the Commissioner is reading a map. He’s holding it upside down for a second before he flips it. I don't think he was supposed to do that, but they kept it in. Gold.
IMDb —
1919
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