alr

Call Her Savage

Directed by John Francis Dillon

Blood Money

Directed by Rowland Brown
Introduction by Thomas Doherty
Screening on Film
  • Call Her Savage

    Directed by John Francis Dillon.
    With Clara Bow, Gilbert Roland, Thelma Todd.
    US, 1932, 35mm, black & white, 87 min.
    Print source: 20th Century Fox

Former "It" Girl Clara Bow blazed her way into the 1930’s with this scorching cautionary tale about a Texas debutante gone bad. Adultery and miscegenation, strict taboos of the Hays Code, are mere details in Nasa "Dynamite" Springer's whirlwind life of spirited rebellion and debauchery. One of the most beloved films of pre-Code aficionados, Call Her Savage features a fascinating Hollywood recreation of a Greenwich Village cabaret, complete with a pair of mincing pansies and a slumming expedition. A subversive and wickedly entertaining film.

  • Blood Money

    Directed by Rowland Brown.
    With George Bancroft, Frances Dee, Judith Anderson.
    US, 1933, 35mm, black & white, 65 min.
    Print source: 20th Century Fox

A minor masterpiece by one of the 1930s great overlooked talents, Roland Brown, Blood Money offers a biting portrait of corporate capitalism as a mad circus run by thieves and perverts. Brown assembles a fascinating line-up of rogues from Los Angeles’ seedy underbelly – sexual masochists, cross-dressing lesbians, kleptomaniacs and corrupt politicians. George Bancroft stars as Bailey, a crooked bail bondsman smitten with a nubile and rich nymphomaniac who is also one of his clients. Eager for an extra set of manhandling hands, she in turn falls for a young bank robber, who pulls the whole lot into a citywide scandal.

Part of film series

Read more

Vice vs. Virtue in Pre-Code Hollywood

Current and upcoming film series

Read more

Jean-Pierre Bekolo, 2024 McMillan-Stewart Fellow

Read more

Chronicles of Changing Times. The Cinema of Edward Yang