Tags
Language
Tags
March 2024
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
25 26 27 28 29 1 2
3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31 1 2 3 4 5 6

Black Moon (1934)

Posted By: Notsaint
Black Moon (1934)

Black Moon (1934)
DVD5 | VIDEO_TS | NTSC | 4:3 | 720x480 | 3800kbps | 2.2Gb
Audio: English AC3 2.0 @ 224Kbps
01:09:00 | USA | Horror

Great relatively forgotten thriller with Fay Wray from the golden years of horror.

Director : Roy William Neill
Cast : Jack Holt, Fay Wray, Dorothy Burgess, Cora Sue Collins, Arnold Korff, Clarence Muse, Eleanor Wesselhoeft, Madame Sul-Te-Wan, Laurence Criner, Lumsden Hare, Henry Kolker, Grace Chapman, Ruby Dandridge, William R. Dunn, Edna Franklin, Robert Frazier, Theresa Harris, Anna Lee Johnson, Pierre Lutere, Billy McClain, Charles R. Moore, Ada Penn, Lillian Smith, Fred Walton,

SYNOPSIS:
A woman's (Dorothy Burgess) strange fascination with voodoo becomes of great concern to her husband (Jack Holt), especially when she insists on going back to the island of Saint Christopher where her roots in the cult were planted as a child. The husband reluctantly agrees and has his secretary (Fay Wray), who is secretly in love with him, accompany his wife and small daughter to the island.
BLACK MOON is a stylish, dark tale capably directed by Roy William Neill, who went on to direct several Sherlock Holmes outings for Universal in the '40's. The moody, shadowy cinematography by Joseph August lends an appropriately eerie atmosphere to what almost qualifies as a horror film.
The principal leads give excellent, underplayed performances. Jack Holt portrayed many strong, heroic roles throughout the '30's, and he's quite sympathetic as the bewildered husband. Dorothy Burgess is also very effective as the disturbed wife, whose fanatical passion ultimately takes control of her. The standout is second billed Fay Wray, who is drop-dead gorgeous as usual and essays her part as the lovelorn secretary with a graceful subtlety.
BLACK MOON is sometimes perceived as racist because of its depiction of black people in the context of voodooism. This is an extreme view, as the film doesn't promote the notion that the natives in this particular story are representative of the entire black race. The movie isn't saying that black people are bad because they practice voodoo, anymore than a '30's movie about vampires was meant as a slur on central Europeans. The practice of voodoo happened to be most prevalent among the black society of Haiti and the surrounding region - in fact to this day there are certain Haitian laws on the books that carry heavy fines and stiff prison sentences for juju priests and anyone practicing higher levels of voodoo. To label a movie like BLACK MOON as racist just because it uses the premise of a particular cult that's popular in a particular locale is a hasty overreaction.
The movie is notable for its grim, uncompromising ending, which for 1934 was extremely rare, as the Production Code was enforced that year and films of this ilk ran afoul with censors

IMDB

Black Moon (1934)

Black Moon (1934)

Black Moon (1934)


A young girl who lives on a tropical island loses her parents to a voodoo sacrifice, but although she manages to escape the island, a curse is put on her. Years later, as an adult, she feels a strong compulsion to return to the island to confront her past. Her husband, her daughter and her nanny go with her, but once back on the island, the woman finds herself elevated by the locals to the stature of a voodoo goddess, and she begins her inevitable descent into madness, with disastrous results for her family.
~ frankfob2@yahoo.com