Safe in Hell (1931)

Part of our series Wild, Weird, Wicked: Films from Before the Code!

Dorothy Mackaill burns up the screen in William A. Wellman‘s sizzling pre-code melodrama Safe in Hell.

She stars as Gilda, a young woman who accidentally kills her rapist former employer and has to get out of town in a hurry. Faster than you can say the words “no extradition treaty” she’s hiding out on a Caribbean island, surrounded by assorted ne’er-do-wells who are all increasingly desperate to uh, get to know her better.

Will our heroine escape their grubby clutches and find redemption? In a pre-code movie, anything is possible.