Black Moon (1934 film)

Black Moon is a 1934 film about a woman returning to her island birthplace who finds herself drawn to a voodoo cult.
 * Directed by Roy William Neill. Written by Wells Root, based on a short story by Clements Ripley.

Love battling against the sorcery of the jungle! (taglines)

Stephen Lane

 * Hear that? This may sound silly and have no bearing on the case, but she's always playing with drums. Not toy drums, but, native drums - from the island of St. Christropher. She was born there. There are two white people there - her uncle and an overseer and a couple a thousand blacks.

Dr. Raymond Perez

 * [Rada drums beating in the background] Something is happening. You ask me what and I can only say I do not know. I merely consider this. We are five whites. Two of them are women and one is a helpless child. And around us are two thousand black. Fully three-quarters of these are hill bandits - fugitives from Haiti.


 * [Showing Stephen Lane his stock of guns] We've been prepared for the last 100 years. Six times the blacks have tried to wipe us out. I suppose you're acquainted with the negro superstition that seven is their lucky number.


 * Those years I grew careless. I trusted Juanita to a native nurse, Ruva. She taught her the Rada of the blacks. At night, when I thought she was asleep, she was taken with native children to watch the sacrifice. She tasted blood!

Dialogue

 * Stephen Lane: Who is he? What's he like?
 * Gail Hamilton: He's the most wonderful man in the world.
 * Stephen Lane: They all say that; but, has he got a job?
 * Gail Hamilton: Yes. A good job.
 * Stephen Lane: When's the wedding?
 * Gail Hamilton: No wedding.
 * Stephen Lane: What's wrong?
 * Gail Hamilton: What's wrong with all the wonderful men? Just one little thing a girl keeps running into. They're married.
 * Stephen Lane: What are you gonna do about it?
 * Gail Hamilton: Well, I'm not going to live in sin. Partly because he hasn't asked me to. And partly because I'm not cut out for that sort of thing. And I doubt very much that I'll kill myself. So, I'm ducking.


 * Stephen Lane: What kind of an island is St. Christopher?
 * 'Lunch' McClaren: Oh, a nice island. Got to learn to like it, though. Same thing all the time. Same thing gets kinda tiresome, all the time. Still, I gotta good job. I runs this boat. Good eatin'. Store bought clothes, once in awhile. Gotta nice little girl too. Of course, she's a monkey-chaser.
 * Stephen Lane: Monkey-chaser? What's a monkey-chaser?
 * 'Lunch' McClaren: Oh, just a nickname they give the natives down there.


 * John Macklin: The voodoo drums are going. They started when the natives found out that you were coming back. For the first time in years, there was a sacrifice that night.
 * Juanita Perez Lane: Well, you don't mean to tell me that my coming has anything to do with the voodoo drums?


 * Juanita Perez Lane: Orders! Who is he to give me orders?
 * John Macklin: He's only the man who saved you from a living death. Those natives never thanked him for sending you away from the island and they've never forgotten it.
 * Juanita Perez Lane: Neither have I.
 * John Macklin: How can you say that? You've a fine husband and a beautiful child. She looks just as you did - before that black woman Ruva got hold of you and filled you with the sound of the drums and the sight of blood. Poisoned you with the voodoo!


 * Juanita Perez Lane: The past is dead! The natives have forgotten long ago.
 * Dr. Raymond Perez: The natives never forget!


 * Dr. Raymond Perez: You know that no natives except the servants are allowed into the house!
 * Juanita Perez Lane: He's a holy man. A priest. Their leader. He's above any servant! I've known him since I was a child.
 * Dr. Raymond Perez: Then, let him remain in the hills where he belongs. If I ever find him in this house ever again, I'll have him whipped!


 * Dr. Raymond Perez: Listen. The sun is just setting.
 * Stephen Lane: What is it?
 * Dr. Raymond Perez: Drums. Rada drums.
 * Stephen Lane: Rada drums?
 * Dr. Raymond Perez: Blood worship. Sacrifice to the black gods. You call it voodoo.
 * Stephen Lane: What does it mean?
 * Dr. Raymond Perez: Who knows. But, this I do know, never have the drums beat so on St. Christopher without trouble.


 * Stephen Lane: What's the matter?
 * 'Lunch' McClaren: There's trouble in my mind.
 * Stephen Lane: What kind of trouble?
 * 'Lunch' McClaren: Gal trouble.
 * [Lane starts to laugh]
 * 'Lunch' McClaren: Don't laugh, Mr. Lane. My gal done got mixed up with that Rada stuff.
 * Stephen Lane: You mean the voodoo?
 * 'Lunch' McClaren: Them voodoo priests want to kill her.
 * Stephen Lane: Kill her? Why?
 * 'Lunch' McClaren: One of dem things. Same thing thats keepin' you on this island, sir.
 * Stephen Lane: What's that?
 * 'Lunch' McClaren: Voodoo.

Taglines

 * Love battling against the sorcery of the jungle!

Cast

 * Jack Holt — Stephen Lane
 * Fay Wray — Gail Hamilton
 * Dorothy Burgess — Juanita Perez Lane
 * Cora Sue Collins — Nancy Lane
 * Arnold Korff — Dr. Raymond Perez
 * Clarence Muse — "Lunch" McClaren
 * Madame Sul-Te-Wan — Ruva
 * Lumsden Hare — Macklin