A camp classic, enjoyably bad and beautiful to look at so long as Hedy Lamarr is on the screen, which is most of White Cargo's 90 minutes. The New Yorker noted of a recent revival:

“After starting Hedy Lamarr off big in this country (in Algiers), Hollywood could never quite figure out what to do with her. So here she is in her eleventh American picture, in dark suntan makeup and bangles, as Tondelayo, the sexy native girl who drives white men wild. The dialogue in this meant-to-be steamy melodrama is a succession of howlers, and Lamarr's tropical wriggling has inspired a generation of female impersonators. Walter Pidgeon and Frank Morgan sweat profusely.”