Safe in Hell 1931
Landing smack-bang in the middle of Hollywood's Pre-Code era, William Wellman's fifth movie of 1931 (his notable others being James Cagney's star-making, grapefruit-smashing 'The Public Enemy', and the squalid thriller 'Night Nurse') proved to be of his tawdriest. No mean feat for a director who seemed intent on pushing boundaries throughout his career.
'Safe In Hell' stars Dorothy Mackaill as Gilda, a New Orleans prostitute, who, thinking that she's killed the man responsible for her career, goes on the run with the help of her sailor boyfriend, Carl (Donald Cook).
Stowing away on Carl's ship, Gilda lets off at the island of Tortuga, a haven for criminals on the run, as it has no extradition treaties. Promising to return for her when his current trip is finished, Carl boards his ship, and leaves Gilda in a rundown, squalid hotel, that plays home to an assortment of the world's most-wanted.
Maybe it's because Dorothy Mackaill is a relatively new phenomenon to me that my mind is looking for comparable and more familiar talents. It also speaks to the variety of Mackaill's roles and his ability to excel anywhere between sweet and sassy or tender and tough.
But it's Dorothy Mackaill's best film, Safe in Hell, which most naturally brings to mind another great star of the period: Barbara Stanwyck.
The Mackaill Guild is tough. Circumstances rob her of potential happiness and she finds herself exiled to the worst place imaginable. Fight hard to win back the future that is imperfect. She fights to redeem herself for her man. Thrown into a lion's cage, it keeps a safe distance before emerging to fit in perfectly with the rest of a very ugly pack.
One could easily see Stanwyck of this period, the one who had previously worked for Safe in Hell director William Wellman in Night Nurse (1931), carving it out as one of his first film roles. And so it was anything but a shock when I learned that Barbara Stanwyck has been associated with Safe in Hell more than once during its lengthy pre-production phase.
Is the film missing Stanwyck? Not at all. Dorothy Mackaill brings her charm to the part, including all of Stanwyck's legendary swagger in New York. Not bad for a girl born and raised in Yorkshire.
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