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Film: Black Moon
Year: 1934
Director: Roy William Neill
Writer: Wells Root
Starring: Jack Holt, Fay Wray and Dorothy Burgess
Review:
This was a movie that I learned about when compiling a list of the 1934 horror films for my Foray through the Fours. This one popped up for me when looking at Fay Wray’s filmography as well. I believe this was her last one that she did in genre, which is interesting feather in its cap. There’s also trivia that I found out with the production/release of this movie and why that was important. Other than that, I came into this one knowing as little as possible. I found this streaming on YouTube.
Synopsis: a woman returning to her island birthplace finds herself drawn to a voodoo cult.
We start this in the United States. Juanita Perez Lane (Dorothy Burgess) is playing the drums. The people in the house comment how she does this regularly and she’s the woman from the synopsis who is from the island. In the room with her is her daughter, Nancy (Cora Sue Collins). Downstairs is her husband, Stephen (Jack Holt) and he’s talking to a psychiatrist, played by Henry Kolker. They’re supposed to be going back to the island she is from as she’s been having issues mentally. It is believed that this will be good in alleviating that.
Stephen goes to work where we meet his secretary, Gail Hamilton (Wray). She slyly tells Stephen that she is quitting and won’t be accompanying them to San Christopher Island. She drops that she is in love with a married man. I wasn’t sure here if Stephen was picking up that it was him or not, but that was my guess immediately. He convinces her to come with them still as he needs her help. While he is away, John Macklin (Lumsden Hare) shows up to tell Juanita that she can’t go to the island. Her uncle, Dr. Raymond Perez (Arnold Korff), forbids it for fear of what will happen to her. The Perez family are the only white people on the island. Something happened when Juanita was a girl and if she returns, her and her family could be at risk. Macklin then says he’ll go tell Stephen directly.
The problem is that he is murdered in the office building before he can. The man who did it was caught and this shocks Stephen. He tells his wife what happened and tt causes him pause when she isn’t more shocked. Juanita, Stephen, Gail, Nancy and her nurse, Anna (Eleanor Wesselhoeft) head to this island.
They are met at the docks by Raymond who is upset that they’re there. He does greet them though and take them to the plantation. It is here that tensions rise. There are voodoo drums playing in the distance. Juanita wants Ruva (Madame Sul-Te-Wan), who was her nurse growing up, to take over raising Nancy. There’s also a priest, by the name of Kala (Laurence Criner), who meets with Juanita. This upsets Raymond. Stephen must go off for work and Gail sees that things aren’t right. She wants him to return as soon as possible and get away before it is too late. Raymond agrees and this upsets Juanita.
That is where I’ll leave my recap and introduction to the characters. Where I want to start is with something I alluded to originally. This takes me into trivia as well. This was released on June 15th and the Hayes Code was enforced on July 1st. This would have prevented the movie from being seen as is since there are aspects that could be flagged for sure. Just something that I wanted to set up here.
Now that I have, let’s get into what we’re getting here. This feels in the vein of White Zombie or I Walked with a Zombie. We have characters going to the Caribbean where they’re meeting with people who practice voodoo. This one is technically a zombie movie only in that, the tonic that would start the process is made and drank by a character. The character that ingested it was shocking and I liked the tension that built from it. I do like the narrative in that we have characters out of their element.
Sticking with this theme, we have Juanita who is from this island and drawn back. She plays this drum she has in New York as a mirror of how they do on San Christopher. Raymond doesn’t want her to return. The natives do though. We learn later that as a girl, she was part of a ritual and I love that no matter how long ago this was as well as the things she done since, their pull is still there. That is creepy for sure since you can’t escape it. Stephen is a good husband. He is willing to take her back to help her since that’s what a psychiatrist thinks will help. He even wants Nancy to get a taste of her mother’s heritage. What is intriguing here though is that he brings Gail. He doesn’t seem to realize that she is in love with him and I like that she’s not out to break up the marriage. She tries to distance herself. How things play out didn’t shock me, I just didn’t realize how they would fully do it.
Now there is racism here that was brought up in the trivia. I can see what they’re saying. We are looking at the natives here as primitives and villains. The issue is that they’re looked at as heathens who follow deities that need sacrifice. Now I know I’ve seen movies after this that handle the voodoo religion better. What is interesting here is that it feels like the writer didn’t know enough about it, just want was in the Cosmopolitan magazine story. They left out the huge element of voodoo in that Catholicism is part of it. Being how early into cinema that we are, I’m not shocked.
That should be enough for the story so I want to go to the acting. I thought this was good here across the board. Holt works as our hero. He does disappear, but that works in its favor. Things happen that put his family into peril while he was gone. It could still happen to him there, but once he’s back, he is taking charge of saving his wife and daughter. Wray is good as the woman who is a better fit for him. She’s attractive as always. Burgess is good as this wife. I love how you get sequences that she’s in a trance. That adds to the tension the longer she’s on the island. Collins is adorable as their daughter who is in peril as well. I like Korff, Clarence Muse, Wesselhoeft, Sul-Te-Wan and the rest of the cast for their roles. Special credit that they did hire Black actors to take on the roles.
All that is left then is filmmaking. I thought that the cinematography was good in capturing the island. It feels isolated and there’s not much between the dangerous locals and our group. This is still problematic but I won’t harp on that. What also works here though is the sound design and music. Having that constant drum in the background is unnerving. No matter what they do, it feels like our characters can’t escape, which is good. This doesn’t have much in the way of effects other than that, but it is also early into cinema.
In conclusion, I thought that this was a solid film and glad that I sought it out. I like this idea of taking people from a modern city like New York and putting them on an island in the Caribbean. They don’t fully understand the customs, which can be scary. There is this constant force that is pulling Juanita back and it could also need her family, which is terrifying as a new parent. We have a child in peril, even though I didn’t think they would fully hurt her. This is well-made. I thought that the acting was good. This is one that I’d recommend to those that are interested in the history of horror cinema. There are good aspects to this for sure.
My Rating: 7 out of 10