Call Her Savage (1932) centres on Nasa "Dynamite" Springer, a young heiress from Texas who defies her father. She starts living a life of brawling and partying that sees her go from Chicago to New Orleans to New York City. As might be expected, her life of pleasure and sin eventually takes a toll upon her.
Call Her Savage (1932) was based on the 1931 novel Call Her Savage by Tiffany Thayer, who was known for his tawdry romance novels. The novel Call Her Savage was apparently quite tawdry, and was summed up by Colonel Jason S. Joy, then head of the Hays Committee as being "...as far wrong as possible" Among other things, the book contained themes of incest, lesbianism, promiscuity, attempted rape, sadism, and syphilis among other things. Even by the standards of the day, the book could be considered racist.
Clara Bow's contract with producer Sam E. Rork gave her story approval on Call Me Savage, something she had never enjoyed on a film before. She also received a salary of $75,000 and an additional $25,000 if the film's rentals exceeded $800,000. Clara Bow also had to agree to loose weight until she was 118 pounds and then to stay at that weight. She was provided with a masseuse to help with her weight loss. For the role of Nasa Springer, the studio also hired a "voice culture specialist."
Clara Bow also requested that Fox's Western Avenue studio, which had sat unused for some time, be used for shooting the interior scenes. Clara Bow approved of the hiring of director John Francis Dillon, who had earlier directed the 1930 film adaptation of the play Kismet. Joel McCrea tested as Clara Bow's leading man in the film, but the role ultimately went to Gilbert Roland.
As to the script, The Hays Committee wanted Fox Film Corporation to remove as much objectionable material as possible, Despite this, when Jason S. Joy read the first draft, he thought "most of the real flavour of the story" had been taken out of the script. Jason S. Joy and his assistant Lamar Totti then held meetings with producer Sam E. Rork and the Fox studio to find a happy medium between the racy novel and the somewhat bland first draft of the movie's script. Jason S. Joy's successor at the Hays Office, James Wingate, ordered more cuts, in particular to a scene in which Nasa's estranged husband tries to rape her and a sequence involving streetwalking.
Jason S. Joy had written a letter to censorship boards in New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Maryland, Kansas, Manitoba, Halifax, New Brunswick, Edmonton, Vancouver, Montreal, and Saskatchewan in which he emphasised the importance of the film as Clara Bow's comeback. The letter more or less fell on deaf ears, as most of the censorship boards demanded cuts anyway. Indeed, the New York Censorship Board outright rejected the film unless specific buts were made. As for the United Kingdom, the British Board of Film Censors out right rejected the movie without giving any specific reason.
Call Her Savage (1932) premiered at the Roxy Theatre in New York City on November 24. 1932. The Los Angeles Times approved of Clara Bow's return to the screen, stating, "It is generally conceded that her acting has improved, having become more restrained, but she is still sufficiently exuberant in her technique to qualify as a natural actress rather than a cultivated one. Her vitality and sincerity unite [in a] likable personality that disarms criticism and wins for her the whole-hearted approval of the masses." The New York Times questioned the film's plausibility, writing, "It is scarcely an offering that can be recommended for its plausibility, but who knows but that there may be a girl somewhere like Nasa Springer. Miss Bow does quite well by the role of this fiery-tempered impulsive Nasa, but whether the flow of incidents makes for satisfactory entertainment is a matter of opinion." Other publications, from Variety to The Film Daily, generally praised Clara Bow.
While critics may have appreciated Clara Bow's return, audiences were not quite as enthusiastic. While Call Her Savage (19320, would make $34,000 in its first week at the Roxy Theatre in New York alone, the film ultimately made only $17,407.
Even for a Pre-Code film, Call Her Savage (1932) can be somewhat shocking. In addition to the scene in which Nasa Springer's estranged husband, obviously suffering from nurosyphilis, tries to rape her, there is also a cat fight between Nasa Spring and Sunny De Lane (Thelma Todd), a drunk and obvious paedophile who goes after a little girl, the death of an infant due to smoke inhalation, and a scene in which Nasa Springer is obviously streetwalking.
Of course, while it is no longer shocking today, the scene that attracts the most attention today is one that is set in what many believe to be the first gay bar in American film. While in New York City, Jay Randall (Anthony Jowitt) takes Nasa to what he says is one of the seedier places in Greenwich Village. There they see two campy performers dressed in filly maid aprons and wielding feather dusters singing a bawdy song about sailors. There can be no doubt that the two men are gay. Call Her Savage (1932) was released at the tail end of what historian George Chauncey in his 1994 book Gay New York would call "the pansy craze," a period from the late 1920s to the mid-1930s when the LGBTQ+ community was more visible in American society, especially in such large cities as New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. The Pansy Craze would pretty much end around the same time as the Pre-Code Era, as Roman Catholics in the United States became concerned about perceived immorality in American cinema.
Sadly, Call Her Savage (1931) relies upon tropes regarding Native Americans that would be considered racist by today's standards and were regarded as racist by some even in 1932. Quite simply, much of the blame for Nasa's rebellious nature is placed on the fact that she is half-Native American (and, yes, I realize is a stretch to believe, fair-skilled, red-haired Clara Bow could b part Native...). The film seems to equate untamed emotion and scandalous behaviour with being Native American. Unfortunately, "the savage Indian" trope was common at the time of the release of Call Her Savage (1931) and would persist in films and later TV shows well into the Sixties.
Seen today, Call Her Savage (1931) is an uneven film. It is remarkable for Clara Bow's performance and the very tawdriness of much of its plot certainly makes it entertaining at times. At the same time, the film is certainly episodic and often has dramatic shifts in its tone. The film's attitudes towards Native Americans might make it uncomfortable viewing for some people (as someone is part Native, that was certainly the case for me). Regardless, it has a place in history as possibly the first film to feature a gay bard and Clara Bow's next to last film.
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