Safe in Hell Information

Safe in Hell is a 1931 pre-Code American melodrama film directed by William Wellman and starring Dorothy Mackaill and Donald Cook with featured performances by Morgan Wallace, Ralf Harolde, Noble Johnson and Nina Mae McKinney.

The film was based on a play by Houston Branch, and was distributed by First National Pictures.

Plot

Gilda Karlson (Dorothy Mackaill) is a New Orleans prostitute. She is accused of murdering Piet Van Saal (Ralf Harolde), the man responsible for ending her life as a secretary and leading her into prostitution. Her old boyfriend, sailor Carl Erickson (Donald Cook), smuggles her to safety on Tortuga, an island in the Caribbean from which she cannot be extradited. On the island, Gilda and Carl get "married" without a clergyman to officiate, and she swears to be faithful to him. After Carl leaves on his ship, Gilda finds herself to be the only white woman in a hotel full of international criminals, all of whom try to seduce her. Especially persistent is Bruno (Morgan Wallace), the island's executioner, who steals the money that Carl sends her, with the hope that she will think that Carl has abandoned her.

Van Saal arrives on the island, having ditched his wife, on the lam with the life insurance money he collected after his "death". Bruno gives Gilda a gun to protect herself. When Van Saal attacks her, she kills him. She is put on trial and is about to be acquitted by a sympathetic jury, when Bruno tells her that he will have her arrested for possessing an illegal firearm unless she has sex with him. To foil Bruno's trap, Gilda gives a false confession at her trial, preferring to die rather than to break her vow to Carl. She is convicted and sent to the gallows.

Cast

Dorothy Mackaill as Gilda Karlson Donald Cook as Carl Erickson Ralf Harolde as Piet Van Saal Morgan Wallace as Mr. Bruno, the hangman John Wray as Eagan Ivan Simpson as Crunch Victor Varconi as General Gomez Nina Mae McKinney as Leonie Charles Middleton as Jones, a lawyer Clarence Muse as Newcastle, the porter Gustav von Seyffertitz as Larson Noble Johnson as Bobo, a policeman Cecil Cunningham as Angie George F. Marion as Jack

Cast notes

• Unusually for the time, the characters portrayed by the main African-American actors in the films, Nina Mae McKinney and Noble Johnson are among the most reputable in the film. Even though their parts were written in dialect in the film's script, they spoke in standard American English in the film itself. William Wellman's biographer, Frank T. Thompson, speculated that either McKinney and Johnson, who were popular favorites at the time, had enough clout with the studio to avoid using "Negro dialect", or else that Wellman "just wanted to avoid a convenient cliche."
• McKinney sings "When It's Sleepy Time Down South", written by Leon René, Otis René and Clarence Muse for the film.

Production and response

Safe in Hell began filming in September 1931 under the working titles of Lady from New Orleans and Lost Lady, and finished on October 18.

The film was originally scheduled to be directed by Michael Curtiz, and initial casting consideration was given to David Manners, Boris Karloff, John Harrington, Montague Love and Richard Bennett. Lillian Bond and Barbara Stanwyck were under consideration for the women.

At the time of its release, Safe in Hell was labelled as being "Not for Children". Time magazine reviewed it, saying: "Safe in Hell is crude, trite, sporadically exciting."