Coming along in the same year as Tod Browning's classic cult film "Freaks", this one is almost as bizarre with Walter Huston in the role of a paraplegic, self-appointed god to a tribe of Chulla natives in the fictional African district of Laplunga. I was somewhat apprehensive about the story's mention of voodoo in the picture, but just now learned that Africa was the original source of the religion that most people associate with the island of Haiti. With a combination of magician's parlor tricks and an iron hand to enforce his will, Flint Rutledge (Huston) lives for the day he can exact revenge on a man who years ago stole his wife and kicked him so hard it left him paralyzed below the waist.
No amount of describing this film can do it any justice, you just have to see it for yourself. Actress Virginia Bruce transforms from a fresh faced, teenage convent girl into a shabby and forlorn creature under Flint's roof. Rutledge had her brought to him under false pretenses by his henchman Hogan (Mitchell Lewis), while planning to have her offered up in a fiery sacrifice after having her father, the man who crippled him, killed by the Chulla's. For some unknown reason, the Chulla's believe that if they kill someone, that person's daughter must be burned alive in some sort of cleansing ritual. If it all sounds too grim, that's because it is.
Lupe Velez adds to the dour proceedings as Flint's gal Friday Tula, who he treats as badly as all the rest of his hangers-on. She must have dabbed on a lot of baby oil because she glistens in every scene she's in, almost looking like she just stepped out of the shower. You could chalk it up to sweat in the African heat, but if that's the case, no one else was affected in the same way.
The tables turn in the final act when Flint's adversary finally arrives on the scene; Gregg Whitehall reveals that Ann (Bruce) is not his daughter; the wife he stole from Rutledge was already pregnant when she ran off with him. Learning this leaves Flint remorseful toward his own daughter, while revealing an escape tunnel that all of his attendants can use while he fends off the distressed natives. Faking out the Chulla's with the old skeleton switcheroo, Rutledge only manages to hang on long enough for Ann and her lover Kingsland (Conrad Nagel) to make a safe getaway.
Before I forget, I do have to mention Flint's chimp pal Kong, who gets a little feisty with Ann in one scene in which she and Flint are arguing; the monkey keeps swatting at her and successfully grabs the front of her shirt before she manages to pull away. I couldn't help thinking that in just one year, that little chimp would conceivably grow up to such a huge size he'd become known as King.
No amount of describing this film can do it any justice, you just have to see it for yourself. Actress Virginia Bruce transforms from a fresh faced, teenage convent girl into a shabby and forlorn creature under Flint's roof. Rutledge had her brought to him under false pretenses by his henchman Hogan (Mitchell Lewis), while planning to have her offered up in a fiery sacrifice after having her father, the man who crippled him, killed by the Chulla's. For some unknown reason, the Chulla's believe that if they kill someone, that person's daughter must be burned alive in some sort of cleansing ritual. If it all sounds too grim, that's because it is.
Lupe Velez adds to the dour proceedings as Flint's gal Friday Tula, who he treats as badly as all the rest of his hangers-on. She must have dabbed on a lot of baby oil because she glistens in every scene she's in, almost looking like she just stepped out of the shower. You could chalk it up to sweat in the African heat, but if that's the case, no one else was affected in the same way.
The tables turn in the final act when Flint's adversary finally arrives on the scene; Gregg Whitehall reveals that Ann (Bruce) is not his daughter; the wife he stole from Rutledge was already pregnant when she ran off with him. Learning this leaves Flint remorseful toward his own daughter, while revealing an escape tunnel that all of his attendants can use while he fends off the distressed natives. Faking out the Chulla's with the old skeleton switcheroo, Rutledge only manages to hang on long enough for Ann and her lover Kingsland (Conrad Nagel) to make a safe getaway.
Before I forget, I do have to mention Flint's chimp pal Kong, who gets a little feisty with Ann in one scene in which she and Flint are arguing; the monkey keeps swatting at her and successfully grabs the front of her shirt before she manages to pull away. I couldn't help thinking that in just one year, that little chimp would conceivably grow up to such a huge size he'd become known as King.