British bumbling meets Bond daydreams in a strip club caper with a seedy twist.
WHITE CARGO
Albert is a bumbling civil servant, who dreams that he is a Bond-like secret agent. He gets involved in a plot to smuggle young women out to the Middle East. More by luck than judgment he manages to thwart the baddies and save the day.
White Cargo is a 1973 United Kingdom comedy film directed by Ray Selfe about Albert Toddey, a hapless civil servant who fantasizes about being a secret agent and stumbles into a plot involving a strip club and a scheme to smuggle young women to the Middle East.
Synopsis
Having been sent a ticket for a supposed high-end gentlemen's club, Albert attends but finds it is a low-end strip club. The club is under surveillance by two bowler-hatted bumbling Home Office investigators Chumley (Lloyd) and Fosdyke (Barrett) who use a variety of transparent disguises throughout the film. While Desiree (Bond), a stripper, performs. Albert notices an off-stage argument between the attractive Stella (Hassall) and bouncer Harry (Prowse), and daydreams of overpowering Harry and rescuing her. Acting on this impulse, he is instead drenched in the water from a mop-bucket, and—along with Stella, who was caught going through the boss's desk—is thrown out into the street. Stella takes pity on him and asks him back to her apartment to dry off; but, as he changes, Stella is kidnapped by Harry. She manages to indicate to Albert that he should find a book, handwritten in Arabic, that she stole from the desk. Chumley and Fosdyke enter the flat, posing as gas meter readers, and advise Albert to take the book to an Eastern trading company for translation, where they lie in wait for him. At the trading company, they translate an address of a house in the country before Albert takes back the book and escapes. At the country house, Albert finds the owner of the strip club, Fox (Cross), Harry and a number of hoods running a trade in white slavery. Harry offers up his girlfriend Desiree to complete an order, along with six women chained up in the cellar. Albert sneaks in through the open French windows, and finds one of the women in the cellar is Stella. He daydreams of taking a poker from the upstairs fireplace, freeing the women with it, tying up the hoods and knocking out Fox. Albert finds no poker, but finds a tyre iron in a van outside, and creates a diversion to re-enter the house by jamming on the van's horn. He fails either to free the women or tie up the hoods, and is chained up overnight with Stella. Meanwhile, Chumley and Fosdyke enter the house posing as census takers, but leave suspicious—for all the names they are given for the residents are of famous film actors.
In the morning, the captives, along with Desiree, are taken in the van to a dockyard warehouse. On the journey, Chumley and Fosdyke appear from hiding in the back of the van, and Stella reveals herself to be an undercover police officer investigating Fox. At the warehouse, while Stella is interrogated over the stolen book, Albert daydreams about overpowering their guard, knocking out the hoods with a hare-brained pulley system and locking Fox in a crate. His scheme fails; however, he manages to knock out the hoods one by one by dropping crates on their heads, while Desiree and the other women gleefully chain up their erstwhile captors. Albert knocks Fox into the dock while Stella phones the police.
As a reward, Albert gets his “position of responsibility”—as the doorman at New Scotland Yard.
- Director
- Ray Selfe
- Writer
- David McGillivray
- Release
- 1973
- Runtime
- 1h 17m
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Language
- English
- Genres
- Comedy
- Also Known As
- Albert's Follies
Why Cult
Albert Toddey’s fantasies of being a suave secret agent offer a tongue-in-cheek riff on the spy genre, all filtered through a bumbling civil servant's imagination.
The action unfolds in a supposed gentlemen's club that turns out to be a low-end strip joint, setting the stage for comic misadventures and plenty of risqué business.
Home Office investigators Chumley and Fosdyke bring slapstick energy to their surveillance antics, donning a series of not-so-convincing disguises throughout the film.
Long before his mainstream fame, David Jason stars as Albert, bringing comic timing and hapless charm to the unlikely hero role.
Themes & Keywords
Frequently Asked Questions
What is White Cargo about? +
White Cargo follows Albert Toddey, a bumbling civil servant who fantasizes about being a secret agent and unwittingly becomes involved in a plot to smuggle young women to the Middle East.
When was White Cargo released? +
White Cargo was released in 1973.
Who directed White Cargo? +
White Cargo was directed by Ray Selfe.
How long is White Cargo? +
White Cargo has a runtime of 77 minutes.
What genre is White Cargo? +
White Cargo is a comedy film.
Where can I watch White Cargo? +
White Cargo is available to stream on SassyFlix.