“Don't tap your heart. You'll break your finger.” — Crawford to Gable

Director Frank Borzage, the greatest romanticist director ever to work in Hollywood, made films of enduring beauty and sentimentality in both the silent and sound era. His ability to handle sensitive subject matter however was never put to the test in the way it was when he signed on to film Richard Sale’s “None Too Narrow...None Too Deep” for MGM. He would have to balance the fire between stars Clark Gable and Joan Crawford with a story having delicate spiritual overtones. The end results are a unique cinematic masterpiece in which Borzage shows his audience it is never too late.

Lawrence Hazard’s sharp and sometimes racy dialog sounds as if Howard Hawks had been standing over his shoulder, telling him just how to write Crawford’s character. She is very much the embodiment of how his world-weary and leery men view women. But Borzage will allow the delicate spiritual message to reveal what is underneath, and in the heart. It is as if Borzage is filming two stories at once, from different eras, and in very different genres. Yet he somehow makes it work; both as entertainment and something more substantive. Gable’s charisma is on full display here and Crawford has one of her finest moments onscreen in a scene opposite Ian Hunter that plays almost like an apology for her film based on a Somerset Maugham story, Rain.

Gable’s Verne is a thief being released after sixteen months in solitary confinement for his fifth escape attempt in three years. He seems incorrigible, and destined not to make it out of the penal colony alive. But Grideau (Frederic Worcock), the head of the island’s prison, sees something worth redeeming in Verne. Allowed to work outside the prison walls down on the wharf, Verne runs into Julie (Joan Crawford) and they begin the first of many salty exchanges which caused the film to be condemned at the time by the Legion of Decency. It also is what kept viewers entertained as a much deeper and more spiritual story began taking hold. Though it seems ludicrous today, it would be this aspect of the film that tipped the scales against it in the eyes of the Legion of Decency.

When Verne sneaks out to get a load of Julie dressed up — “Grief ain't what I came after, Baby” — and she promptly turns him in, the sparks between them almost burn up the screen. But suddenly a mysterious bible-carrying prisoner no one remembers ever having seen before shows up to replace Verne for the returning head count. Fans of Borzage know in that exact moment there’s much more going on here than a terribly racy late 1930s romance. What follows is a unique blend of entertainment, a racy romance and a spiritual message which finally and inevitably collide, leaving the viewer mesmerized by what they’ve just seen.

There is plenty of action and conflict, with a jungle and an ocean between Verne and freedom. Paul Lukas, Albert Dekker, Howard Bromberg, and Eduardo Cianelli are a few of his fellow escapees. But it is Ian Hunter’s Cambreau who seems to always know what’s going to happen, and how to get there. While Gable and Crawford spar, he helps those who might not make it find peace before their light dims, and seems to know what’s in their hearts.

Crawford is marvelous here as Julie, struggling against believing but knows it must be so when Cambreau is the only one who knows she’s been saying silent prayers for them all. Verne may be the toughest nut to crack, however, as only in a storm on a boat does he realize he may have just thrown his salvation, and future, overboard.

Peter Lorre plays to perfection the lovelorn M’sieu Pig, whom Crawford’s Julie could never sink low enough to touch. Franz Waxman’s score nicely complements the photography of Robert Plack and art direction of MGM’s Cedric Gibbons to create an atmospheric film pleasing on all fronts.

Gable and Crawford were always good together and are fantastic here, their back-and-forth containing a rare edge. It is the spiritual tone and message of the film, however, which creates a one-of-a-kind movie experience. Another truly great film by a true master of both nitrate and celluloid, Frank Borzage. ( )