Runtime: 88 minutes
Directed by: John Francis Dillon
Starring: Clara Bow, Gilbert Roland, Thelma Todd, Monroe Owsley, Estelle Taylor
From: 20th
Century Fox
The craziest Pre-Code movie ever made? Maybe… recently-as you do-a Google search was done to look at lists of the wildest pictures from the Pre-Code era. Call Her Savage was brought up; aside from its salacious plot, the movie is interesting as the second-to-last that Clara Bow ever made before saying “peace out” to Hollywood and retiring to a Nevada ranch. Given all those salacious rumors surrounding her (there’s much more than the infamous one concerning the USC football team), can’t blame her for leaving public life.
What a plot it has: Bow plays a gal named NASA (!) who is the firebrand daughter in a rich Texas family. She literally whips rattlesnakes AND men, breaks a guitar over someone’s head as if she was Jeff Jarrett, gets into physical altercations w/ anyone, etc. Not surprisingly, she has a fractured relationship with dad. Nasa marries someone on a whim to make father upset—this proves to be a mistake. The film has a whole also contains such elements as: fires, whooping Indians (more on that in a moment), prostitution, a shocking death, a scene at a gay bar, attempted sexual assault, a few implied moments that are quite gross, and more.
Wild, this was. There are comedic moments among all the melodrama and Nasa’s out of control behavior. Unfortunately… to borrow a phrase, this movie was baked in racism. Mexican actor Roland portrayed “a half-breed Indian” and without elaborating any further, negative stereotypes of Native Americans are used. My rating of the film does not reflect any approval of these stereotypes or their impact on the plot. Rather, it was the bold performance from Bow which won me over. Whether she was vivacious as an independent woman or vulnerable as an emotional woman, she’s the draw. Roland and Thelma Todd (et al.) were fine but Ms. Clara was the standout.
Whether or not Call Her Savage is the ne plus ultra of its type, I was always entertained, sometimes perversely. Thankfully the movie can be found on YouTube.
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