Review – Black Moon

This movie actually contains the delivered-in-all-seriousness line, “The natives are restless.” And that’s typical of the racial sensitivity – or lack of same – displayed throughout the picture. A white woman can’t wait to return to the Caribbean island where she grew up because she misses participating in voodoo ceremonies with the aforementioned restless natives. This puts her at odds with her wealthy husband and plantation-owning uncle, especially after her return to her voodoo ways places her daughter in jeopardy. “Once you go black you never go back” sexuality lurks just below the surface of the drama, though of course in the 1930s it couldn’t be an overt plot element. Fortunately for jilted hubby, his secretary (Fay Wray) is waiting in the wings to be a good wife to him and a good mother to his daughter as soon as wife gets her eventual come-uppance. Sheesh. Wish I’d skipped it