classicsoncall I didn't know what to expect with this film but it turned out to be a rather creepy and sinister story. A woman who was raised on the West Indies island of San Christopher longs to return as an adult to confront the demons of her past, as her parents were both killed by natives on the island. Her husband and uncle who live on the island both warn against the idea, but Juanita Lane (Dorothy Burgess) sets off for San Christopher with her daughter (Cora Sue Collins) and attendant Gail Hamilton (Fay Wray) in tow.The most troublesome aspect of the story to me had to do with Juanita's casting aside of her husband and daughter as she gets caught up in the voodoo rituals of San Christopher, to the extent that the island villagers elevate her status to one of a high priestess. In a scene where a male high priest is about to sacrifice a native black woman, Juanita's husband Steve (Jack Holt) intervenes by shooting the man, but to finish the ceremony, Juanita picks up the machete and completes the sacrifice! The fact that the scene wasn't graphically shown in no way lessens the impact of the imagery.A similar scene gets to play out in the latter part of the story, but this time it's Juanita's daughter who becomes the object of the island sacrifice. The script probably should have done a better job of defining the motivation for such a horrific idea, all the viewer is left with is the impression that Juanita must be terribly insane. As the cacophony of native drums mesmerizes Juanita with their hypnotic effect, Steve Lane arrives just in time to shoot his own wife to save his daughter's life. The most unbelievable aspect in both instances was the lack of reaction by the chanting villagers. You would think they'd be the slightest bit upset by the interruption of their ritual celebration.Though I've seen Jack Holt previously in a couple of B Westerns, this was my first look at him in a leading role. He's not very charismatic in this portrayal, and he doesn't appear to have much chemistry with wife Juanita or his assistant Gail. Though it's more than apparent that Miss Hamilton carries a torch for the older man, it never really appears that Steve Lane is on the same wavelength, even if the story's resolution has all the main participants returning home as a newly reorganized family. You just had to wonder how they were going to put this horrible event behind them.

rstef1 This is a tense and exciting little film. I was surprised how quickly and effectively the movie manages to ratchet up the tension without wasting time on endless setup, giving us just enough to know the characters and get involved with the situation. There is a very effective and ominous tone struck with the opening frames and nicely developed as the cast heads to an island that is cut off from help. Good performances and cinematography help greatly; for once we have a juvenile who is not annoying and smart leads in Fay Wray and Jack Holt. Dorothy Burgess does a good job with a complicated part. This plays like a forerunner to Val Lewton's classic I Walked with a Zombie, though there are no zombies present here. Worth catching the beautiful print on TCM.

MauveMouse These old voodoo films are strange fruits, I love them a lot though they're not particularly respectful towards the aboriginal population inhabiting the exotic far-away places which in the era were mostly fictionalized as destinations of great adventures but especially of great dangers. Blatantly racistic, and terrifyingly simplistic in their exploiting of the occult edges of voodoo as weapons of the natives, seen as barbarian beasts, against the white race, they stand as fascinating curiosities of the horror and mystery cinema of their times. Years before I Walked with a Zombie, we have here a white woman ''zombified'' in the original and accurate meaning of the term, hypnotized, drugged, and occultly manipulated into a being of voodoo folklore, a bloody queen performing dreadful rituals which include human sacrifices. There is no sympathetic approach towards the so-called ''savagery'' of the natives, so, by immediately associating with them, the white woman is seen as an enemy turning against her race, beyond redemption for her family and friends. Even her husband turns against her while she fiercely embraces the islanders' ways. For those who believe old black-and-white films are tame, there's a lot here to make one's skin crawl, including matricidal intentions which I consider it to be the most terrifying element of the film. In a role that's too small for her talent and charisma, Fay Wray is, as always, a delight on screen though her character is diminished in intensity by the restless lady of the house who metamorphoses into a murderous voodoo priestess. It is obscure compared to other classics of the genre, White Zombie or I Walked with a Zombie but it stands on its own and delivers a frightening, completely politically incorrect, tale of exotic voodoo mysteries

Michael_Elliott Black Moon (1934) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Twenty-plus years after her parents were murdered in a voodoo ritual, a woman (Dorothy Burgess) travels back to the native land where the people there want her to start up as their leader. The woman's secretary (Fay Wray) wires her husband (Jack Holt) to come and try to save her but it might be too late. This forgotten horror film from Columbia falls somewhere between WHITE ZOMBIE and I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE so fans of those two films will certainly want to check this out. As far as I'm concerned, I'm not a major fan of all three films as I think they all have a great atmosphere but in the end their stories just aren't strong enough to carry the films for me. There's a lot of stuff that does work here with the biggest plus being the atmosphere created by the director. We really get the feeling as if we're on this island surrounded by the strange locals and in the middle of something evil. There's no fog machines but that doesn't keep Neill away from delivering the goods as the dark tone of the film also hits on something that the Val Lewton films would eventually do and that's the use of shadows. Another plus is some fine cinematography as well as a nice performance by Holt. Wray, the original Scream Queen, is good too, although, as usual, she isn't given enough to do. What doesn't work, for one, is the performance of Burgess who is easy on the eyes but her character is badly underwritten. Another problem is the actual screenplay that really doesn't offer any twist or turns up until the very end when the movie does go in a direction that you wouldn't normally expect.