Dorothy Mackaill and Donald Cook are Gilda and Carl. Starts out as a sordid affair... Gilda is hiding after accidentally killing an attacker. they run off and make it respectable. The african americans are portrayed as quite well educated and well spoken, which was rare for a film of this time! some fun scenes where the "locals" of the hotel sit around and chew the fat, sing, and spout out aphorisms, all of which have nothing to do with the story, except to show us how awful the place is. The story is pretty tight... Gilda has her ups and downs, and it all comes down to a trial near the end. Good stuff. A good example of the "south sea exotic films", which were all clearly filmed on the back lot, but have the appearance and feeling of life far away on an island. some surprises near the end, but I won't give away spoilers. Watch it for yourself. John Fay is in here, he died pretty young at 53, but just about everyone did back then. Mackaill had started films in the early 1920s, made a bunch of talkies, then stopped suddenly around 1937. Mackaill looks and sounds just like Joan Blondell, but of course, Mackaill came first! Director Wellman had started with silent films, and very successfully moved on to talkies. Oscar for 1937 version of Star is Born. This one is pretty good. Love, dedication. started out as a play by houston branch.
Review of Safe in Hell
