Safe in Hell (1931)

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1. 

   Thorkell

   Damn, that was a good film. A film noir way before the film noir era or a proto-noir or pre noir film, if you like. This is shockingly bleak, beautifully filmed and wonderfully compassionate. A prostitute on the run and a corrupt world run by men who have only one goal, to rule over and dominate our heroine. This should be a classic but instead it is a forgotten, and rather badly reviewed film on IMdb (only 7/10, with 421 votes) and only one one list on iCM (Doubling the Canon, with only 58 checks). Why the hell is this not better known? A brilliant pre-code film, well made, interesting and a undiscovered masterpiece. 11 years 3 months ago
2. 

   Siskoid

   Safe in Hell is a pre-Code sizzler about a girl who leaves her old boyfriend for dead in a building fire and hides out on a no-extradition Caribbean island, after marrying her current beau. Her promises of fidelity are tested at every turn by a cast of men frequenting the same hotel/bar, but the intrigue of the film is actually seeing how far she'll go to keep her vows. Tragedy may well ensue, but the movie has a lightly comic touch in the second act, as many of her suitors have zany personalities. I also have a lot of affection for the lively barmaid played by Nina Mae McKinney. This movie really belongs to Dorothy Mackaill, who's very strong compared to most of the no-names she's playing off against (the man she's devoted to is especially bland, and it looks like the island's executioner and main antagonist climbed out of a dumpster). She's good, and the direction is good, with lots of great shots and moments. So it's a little unfortunate that the sound is sometimes distorted, though the dialog came out of the early talky era unscathed at least. 4 years 6 months ago

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