Safe in Hell

William Wellman's 1931 film shows how far Hollywood could go before the Production Code was enforced. Believing she has killed a man in New Orleans, Gilda escapes the law to a small Caribbean island where criminals cannot be extradited. At the hotel where she stays she is surrounded by men who have fled from everywhere, and every one of them wants something from her. The film offers no hero to save her; Gilda has to defend herself and her options keep narrowing. The ending has a hardness almost unseen in Hollywood films of the period. That the Black characters working at the hotel are drawn with respect, as real people, against the habits of the time, is another of its distinguishing features. Who it's for: viewers who like pre-Code American cinema and hard female leads. Who it's not for: anyone who would rather not approach a story built on sexual threat; the film keeps it constantly visible.