CALL HER SAVAGE

 

Last night Turner Classic Movies showed the notorious 1932 Fox Pre-Code film CALL HER SAVAGE, starring Clara Bow and Hitless Wonder Movie Blog favorite Thelma Todd. It was a first-time viewing for me. 

CALL HER SAVAGE starts out with a Native American attack on a wagon train, and that's one of the more routine things in this movie. The attack takes place in the Old West, and the wagon master is caught off guard, because the married man is busy fooling around with another woman. This sequence sets up the idea that the sins of the wagon master will be visited upon his heirs, namely his future granddaughter Nasa Springer (Clara Bow). 

Nasa grows up rich and spoiled on a large Texas ranch, and among the things she gets away with are: taking a whip to a rattlesnake, and then using the same whip on a part-Native American part-white man named Moonglow (Gilbert Roland), who has a crush on Nasa. (He has such a crush on her that he stands absolutely still and takes it while the young woman violently strikes him over and over again--in a too-obvious metaphor, he's literally her whipping boy.) Less than a minute after the attack on Moonglow, she's coyly flirting with him, but soon she's smashing a guitar over the head of a ranch hand. She's sent to a special school in Chicago by her disappointed father, but Nasa disobeys him and marries dissolute rich playboy Larry Crosby (Monroe Owsley). Nasa soon finds out that Larry married her just to get back at his mistress (Thelma Todd), so she decides to live it up and spend as much of Larry's money as possible. The money runs out, and Nasa discovers she's pregnant, and her problems get worse and worse.....but her biggest obstacle is her tempestuous nature. 

CALL HER SAVAGE was considered a comeback of sorts for Clara Bow. The "It Girl" had been away from acting for a while due to her many personal problems. The Fox Corporation signed Bow to a big contract, and they went all out to make the story stand out. The movie is now considered one of the prime examples of the Pre-Code era, but what hurts the picture is that it tries to be so salacious it winds up bordering on the absurd. Nearly every scene deals with a major issue or problem that Nasa has to deal with, and among the things that come up are catfights, a sexual assault by her estranged (and deranged) husband, and an attempt at prostitution in New Orleans after she winds up broke and her baby needs medicine. 

There's all sorts of urban legends about how Clara Bow's film career turned out when talkies arrived. All I can say is in CALL HER SAVAGE her voice sounds perfectly fine, and her line readings are natural and unaffected. Her best moments as Nasa are those without dialogue, as she ably shows how behind the woman's tough exterior there's a deep well of pain and sadness (no doubt the actress' own personal life had an impact on how she played the role). Bow looks great, and she gets to wear plenty of outfits that show off her figure and her cleavage. The main explanation for Nasa's outlandish antics is that she is the result of a fling between her mother and a Native American--an idea that is of course patently ridiculous, and doesn't take into account the fact that Moonglow, who has a similar racial background, is kind and gentle. (If anything, Nasa's actions make one believe that she's very likely bipolar.) 

Thelma Todd and Clara Bow in CALL HER SAVAGE

Thelma Todd once again plays the "other woman" role, and she once again makes such an impression in such a short time that one wishes she had more to do. (The catfight between Thelma and Clara is one of the big highlights of the entire Pre-Code era.) Monroe Owsley is a true Pre-Code villain--his Larry Crosby is such an arrogant jerk that one wonders what any woman would see in him, no matter how rich he might be. (Not only does Larry assault Nasa, he shoves Thelma Todd straight over a chair--luckily Thelma had plenty of experience in falling down due to her association with Hal Roach.) Film geeks will notice among the supporting cast Mary Gordon, Bert Roach, Three Stooges veteran Symona Boniface, and Mischa Auer, who starts a brawl in a Greenwich Village eatery that Nasa and her escort happen to be visiting. (Said eatery also features a couple of flamboyantly gay singing waiters--this is a Pre-Code film, after all.) 

Fox put a lot of effort into CALL HER SAVAGE, and director John Francis Dillon provides a few expressionistic touches. Pre-Code fans consider most movies made during that era as wild & crazy romps--but I wouldn't put CALL HER SAVAGE in that category. It's very gruesome at times, and while Clara Bow does very well in a difficult role, Nasa Springer isn't the type of person you want to spend a lot of time with. This film also has a dark undercurrent to it when one realizes how many emotional & mental issues Clara Bow dealt with. The actress made only one more film after CALL HER SAVAGE, and then she retired from the screen for good. When one thinks about how the role of Nasa Springer might have affected Bow's fragile mind, that decision was probably for the best.