CALL HER SAVAGE (1932)

Pre-Code filmmaking at its scandalous best, and one of Clara Bow's last movies. The somewhat confusing opening, set many years in the past, features a Old West wagon train leader accused of bringing on an Indian attack because of his immoral womanizing. Years later, his wife bears a child by an Indian father. The girl, named Nasa (Bow), who doesn't know the truth about her parentage, grows up to be wild and uncontrollable (we're to assume this is due to her "half-breed" nature). In one rather shocking scene, she flirts with the handsome, passive half-breed lad Moonglow (Gilbert Roland) and when he doesn't respond properly, she whips him across the face and chest. Her father (or the man she assumes is her father) sends her off to Chicago to be tamed at a girl's academy, but her rebellious nature cannot be overcome. A marriage is arranged with the rich but effeminate Tyrell Davis, but Bow counters by eloping with Monroe Owsley, though not before having a hair-pulling catfight with his fiancee, Thelma Todd. It turns out that Owsley has only married her to spite Todd, and their relationship goes downhill quickly, until he drinks himself almost to death. The pregnant Bow leaves him and later turns to prostitution, and her child dies in a fire while Mama is out making the rent money. There is more scandal and tragedy before Bow's dying mother finally tells her the truth about her father; learning this seems to be the one thing that "tames" Bow, and the film ends with Bow about to forge a bond of sorts (perhaps love but perhaps just affection) with dear old Moonglow.

This film is about as wild as 30's movies get. In addition to all the whoring and drinking and miscegenating, we even get a glimpse inside a Greenwich Village bar, supposedly a haven for "poets and anarchists," but actually full of gay customers and campy waiters. Early on, Bow is dressed in a tight white top which clearly shows that she's braless. There are a number of juicy lines. An unfaithful husband defends his wandering ways while he scolds his unfaithful wife: "I pay the bills, I'm allowed a little leeway." Just before the big fight, Thelma Todd says, "I suppose you know you broke up my home," and Bow replies, "I didn't know you were in a home; when did you get out?" A male escort tells Bow that she won't be happy until some man "beats the devil" out of her. The sexual and racial politics are certainly not "PC," but the movie is entertaining and provides an interesting look at silent screen siren Bow, who only made a handful of sound pictures before she retired at 28. [FMC]