| Black Moon | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Roy William Neill |
| Produced by | Everett Riskin |
| Written by | Wells Root Clements Ripley (short story) |
| Starring | Jack Holt Fay Wray Dorothy Burgess |
| Cinematography | Joseph H. August |
| Editing by | Richard Cahoon |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 15 June 1934 |
| Running time | 68 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Black Moon is a 1934 crime film directed by Roy William Neill and starring Jack Holt, Fay Wray, and Dorothy Burgess.[1] It is based on a short story by Clements Ripley that first appeared in Hearst's International-Cosmopolitan.[2]
Contents |
A young girl, Juanita, finds her parents killed in a voodoo ritual on a distant tropical island. She escapes with her life, but when she reaches adulthood, she feels compelled to return to the island, bringing her daughter and nanny with her. Once there, she goes to stay with her uncle who lives on the island. She soon discovers that the natives, who had been using her for voodoo rituals when she was a child, now treat her as a voodoo goddess. In this role, she begins leading their rituals.
Any attempt to fight Juanita's influence or to remove her from her position is met with violent force. One person is found dead in a lava pit, while another is found hung. At one point, Juanita is so overcome by the voodoo curse that she offers her daughter up for sacrific. Juanita's businessman husband, Stephen, follows her to the island and attempts to travel into the jungle to rescue her, but finds her taking part in a sacrifice of an innocent woman. Although he shoots the high priest of the tribe, Juanita completes the sacrifice herself.
Their high priest injured, the natives now plan to murder all of the white people on the island. Stephen takes his daughter and two others into the fortified section of a plantation house. The natives succeed in capturing Stephen and his secretary, Gail, but they eventually rescued. In the end, Stephen shoots and kills Juanita just as she is about to sacrifice her own daughter.