Black Moon (1934)

Just perfect...

Blistering performances.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

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

This is NOT a particularly deep film nor will it impress film snobs. After all, it's about voodoo and human sacrifice! However, in a very low-brow sort of way, it is entertaining....and a bit dumb.The film begins with Dorothy Burgess banging away on tribal drums in her home in America. She is an amazing drummer, as her arm motions and the drum sounds aren't the least bit in sync--making her very special indeed (or it makes this a sloppy B-film). It seems that this lady is a bit nutty and longs to return to the Caribbean island where she'd lived years ago. However, her husband (Jack Holt) is apprehensive--especially when her family on the island is telling her NOT to come there. But, despite the warnings, this goofy acting lady goes to the island--and immediately resumes her involvement with a local voodoo cult! It turns out she is actually well-connected with these natives and everyone around her thinks she is nuts. However, she is far, far more disturbed than everyone thought, as this strange religion practices human sacrifice--and Burgess is more than willing to comply with their orders--leading to a really cool finale.In addition to Burgess and Holt, Fay Wray was also a star in this film---though she really didn't seem to have much to do. Her part was ill-defined and rather unnecessary. As for Holt, he was more wooden than usual. In fact, none of the performances were that good. But, because the film was so cheesy and silly, it did keep my interest.

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.

**SPOILERS*** One of the first films about voodoo and voodoo blood sacrifices to come out of Hollywood that caught the unsuspecting public by surprise. Not only does the film have human sacrifices preformed to the screaming and howling cries and chants of whipped up,to a red hot fury, local island voodoo worshiper's but in many cases these gruesome murders are preformed by the very parents, mostly mothers, or spouses of the victims themselves!In the movie "Black Moon" we see how voodoo can be implanted into a person's brain at a very young age and drive the person crazy to the point that he or she will murder their own flesh and blood to satisfy their voodoo God. This happens to Juanita Lane, Dorothy Burgess, who's mind had been messed up by voodoo since she was a little girl on the Caribbean island of St. Christopher. Now grown up married and with a little girl of her own Juanita answers the call of her Voodoo God to travel back to St. Christopher from her home in NYC to finish the job that the natives there, who made her a high priestess, demand! Murder by ritual sacrifice her seven year old daughter Nancy, Cora Sue Collis, in a blood voodoo ritual at the time of the next new moon!The tranquil and beautiful scenery of St. Christopher hide the sheer terror that lies just beneath it's surface in the island's centuries long practice of voodoo. This all come shockingly to light when Juanita arrives there as a guest at her father's Dr. Raymond Perez, Arnold Korff, villa. Dr. Perez unlike his daughter's husband Stephen Lane, Jack Holt, knows the secret behind Juanita's very strange behavior and was dead set against her coming there. With Junita now at St. Christopher she becomes attracted to the very thing that both her father and later husband were trying to get her exorcised from: Voodoo. And it's that strange fascination or addiction that would lead to a native uprising that will threaten the lives of the few remaining whites or foreigners, about a half dozen, still living in St. Christopher including Juanita herself.***SPOILERS*** Even though the blood-letting in the film is kept at a minimum just the thought of what the movie is all about is enough to make your stomach turn. In the end Stephen finally realizes that his wife is beyond help and has to do the unthinkable in order to save his still unaffected, by the island's voodoo priest Kala (Laurence Criner) and his top aid and little Nancy's nanny Rova (Madam Sul-Te-Wan), daughter Nancy from being sacrificed to the island's voodoo God. Stephen is thus forced to commit an act of extreme violence that even if it was the right and only thing to do on his part he'll be cursed to both live and suffer with what he did for the rest of his life!