FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

DipitySkillful an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Jerrie It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Kimball Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

jeffhaller125 Not even sure why I recorded this but one of the greatest strokes of luck I have ever had. This is a dark movie. Somehow I always find that films before 1932 are quite a bit more rugged looking than what followed. A lot of that might be technology but the script here is downright mean at times. The scene where the group of convicts on the lam compare their erections is even pretty raw by today's standards. And what a gross group of men they are. That makes the whole scene even sleazier. Donald Cook was such a handsome guy. His character doesn't have a lot of depth here but he is always very sweet and so very kind. Dorothy Mackaill is the star and it is a shame that her career never went far in talkies. She had a stunning look and she could really act. What she brought to this role that wasn't in the script showed what an remarkable talent she was. And she had to be on her toes because every time Nina Mae McKinney is on screen as the hotel clerk she nearly steals the movie. McKinney is another one who should have had a major career, but there the circumstances were different. When she sings her song to the men she is serving dinner, I dare you to look away. This has a great degree of Miss Sadie Thompson in it but with not nearly the amount of morality. The main character here is a very good person who sometimes has to compromise for her survival. This movie was WAY AHEAD of its time. I don't think that any movie today could deal with a subject like this was such frankness and compassion.

JohnHowardReid Directed with flair, confidence and great deal of style by William A. Wellman, and solidly acted by a fine line-up of persuasive players including Dorothy Mackaill as the tainted heroine, Nina Mae McKinney as the manager of the sleazy hotel, Clarence Muse as Newcastle the hotel porter, Charles Middleton as the refugee defence counsel, Donald Cook as the at-first-reluctant hero, and Ralf Harolde as the villain of villains, this is an expansively produced melodrama that is put across so realistically and with such flair that it really engaged my intense attention from fiery first to surprising last. Fine camera-work by Sid Hickox and appropriately seedy art direction by Jack Okey helped too. This amazingly downbeat noir movie, adapted from the stage shocker by Houston Branch, is now available on an excellent Warner Archive DVD.

DangerAwesome "Safe in Hell" is by far the darkest, most risqué film of its time period that I have yet seen. Even by today's standards it is far from tame. The atmosphere of sexual predators is overwhelming.There is a great ensemble performance in this film. Gilda (Mackaill), the hotel manager (McKinney), and the general (Varconi), are all highlights. The best performance though is Morgan Wallace as Mr. Bruno. A good case could be made that he is one of the most evil villains in the history of cinema. The movie is worth watching if only for him.The overall story and drama is the only part of the movie I would call less than spectacular. The main plot point is how in love Gilda (Mackaill) and Carl (Cook) are, and how far she is willing to go to stay with him. Yet we never see them together for more than a few minutes. Had the romance angle been a little better it would have made the drama part of the picture much stronger.The best reason to watch this movie is the atmosphere. One beautiful white girl on an island of criminals. One by one trying their moves on her, while the others sit in a row of wicker chairs watching to see how the other one does. The thin shred of civilization being the only thing stopping pure lust from taking over.This is a movie that simply wouldn't exist if it hadn't been pre-code. If that's something that intrigues you, then Safe in Hell is exactly what you are looking for.

Mark Honhorst Poor Dorothy Mackaill just can't catch a break. After falling into the prostitution racket, she accidentally kills the man who was partially responsible for her line of work in the first place (or so she thinks).Her sailor boyfriend smuggles her onto an island with a bunch of weirdos to avoid arrest. Things get a little complicated when (SPOLIERS!) the man she thought she killed shows up on the island. This is a decent pre code drama, however, it is very draggy in some parts, (featuring many scenes of the half drunken old criminals sitting around in wicker chairs) ,has the production values of a poverty row flick, and drifts off into fairly standard early 30s courtroom drama by the third act. But the last ten minutes or so provide a couple of moving, powerful scenes, and the depressing, but effective ending more than makes up for the rest of the movie being slow. It also helps that the two black actors, Noble Johnson and Nina Mae Mckinney, aren't total stereotypes, which is remarkable for a film of this age.So don't be fooled by the seemingly endless "sitting around on an island" scenes. Just wait til the end, it'll be worth it.