Early Talkie

 

 (imdb)

THE NINTH GUEST-1934-8 people are invited to a mysterious party given by someone known only as "The host". The group includes two political rivals who hate each other, a snooty society dame (Helen Flint) and a doctor (Samuel Hinds). The only levelheaded guest is an author (Donald Woods). "The host" talks to them via a special radio and says they all will die. They begin to be killed one by one with the killer being revealed in the finale.

 It's a pre-code talkie based on a play that resembles Agatha Christie's “Then There Were None” which was written later. Genevieve Tobin and Vince Barnett co-star. Unsung director Roy William Neill would go on to make THE BLACK ROOM (with Karloff), FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN and the lion's share of the Univeral Sherlock Holmes series with Basil Rathbone.

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Early Voodoo

BLACK MOON-1934-A woman (Dorothy Burgess) raised on a tropical island where she became involved with voodoo rituals decides to go back for a visit despite being happily married. Her husband (Jack Holt) can't go with her because of business (bad move) so he sends his secretary (Fay Wray, a year after KING KONG), who's secretly in love with her boss, to accompany her and their young daughter. Arriving on the island she's treated almost like a goddess by the natives and refuses to leave. When hubby arrives to take them all back things get worse. It appears the daughter is to become a human sacrifice!

Clarence Muse is also featured as a boat operator and although it's his usual racial stereotypical role his character does do a little more than just stand around taking orders.
T
his early pre-code voodoo film (Burgess wears a very revealing night gown in one scene) was directed by the underrated Roy William Neill who made THE BLACK ROOM with Karloff the next year.

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After "It"

CALL HER SAVAGE-(1932)-This is a must see early talkie pre-code drama featuring former silent star Clara Bow (The "It" Girl of the '20's) in her second to last movie. Although like a lot of early talkies this suffers from the stilted acting of the supporting cast, Bow carries the whole thing with her stand-out performance!



Bow plays Nasa "Dynamite" Springer, the spoiled daughter of a rich Texan who's real father is the "half Breed" Indian Moonglow (Gilbert Roland who in in real life was actually Mexician). After rejecting a rich suitor hand picked by her father (Willard Robertson) she marries her sleazy boyfriend (Monroe Owsley) who dumps her for the equally trashy Sunny (Thelma Todd, who had been in 2 Marx Bros. around the same time). Nasa lives wild life on her husband's money but he tries to rape her when she visits him at a sanatorium. After losing her millions and having a baby she turns to prositution to support herself. After her baby is killed in a fire she inherits her grandfather's fortune. When she goes to NYC, she hires a guy to show her around. He takes her to a gay bar in Greenwich Village where she starts a small riot!

Clara Bow lead a wild life in her heyday of the '20's. All sorts of rumors circulated about her sex life (from taking on a whole college football team to beastiality!). Typical of pre-code cinema she wears some very "skimpy" clothing too. Watch her scene where she wrestles with a dog! It's too bad she only made one more movie then retired to raise two sons with her husband, cowboy star Rex Bell (later a senator). Unfortunately, she suffered from mental illness later in life and died in 1965.

Strangely two co-stars of CHS died tragically. Monroe Owsley died of a heart attack four years later at the age of 36. Thelma Todd died of carbon monoxide poisoning that was ruled an accident but was more likely murder. She was 30 years old. Her last movie was Laurel & Hardy's THE BOHEMIAN GIRL.

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