Pagan Lady

This little tropics-set potboiler will remind many of Joan Crawford's RAIN, but Evelyn Brent (as Dorothy Hunter) is more in control of her destiny than Sadie Thompson is.

The film opens in Havana where Brent is a bar tender and party girl. Husky Charles Bickford (as Dingo) wanders in and asks for a New Life? She's never heard of it but he's got her attention. He proceeds to list a bunch of ingredients which she tosses into a glass. Then he downs it all.

They take off together and end up on an island at a hotel run by Lucille Gleason. The sardonic Roland Young is a guest. The creepy Willises are also around (Leslie Fenton, Gwen Lee). The news that a famous reformer and his nephew (William Farnum, Conrad Nagel) are stopping by on their way to rescue island natives sets everyone on edge.

The naive Nagel instantly falls for Brent (Bickford is on travel) while Fenton and Lee set to work spreading lies and rumors. An innocent swim turns into a local scandal when Brent and Nagel get marooned on a island alone after a storm. But Bickford returns to straighten everyone out.

Some interesting dialog here about Nagel's brand of religion (the rabid reformer) versus Brent's. She tells him her god is in a golden sunset, not in the pages of a book.

Several scenes are filmed on beaches with crashing waves and sea breezes and the sound is excellent. All the actors are quite good here with the exception of hammy Farnum.