# 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.

## 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

## External links

* Black Moon quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* Black Moon at Allmovie