Safe in Hell
1931 film by William A. Wellman
Safe in Hell is a 1931 American pre-Code drama film directed by William A. Wellman and starring Dorothy Mackaill and Donald Cook, with featured performances by Morgan Wallace, Ralf Harolde, Nina Mae McKinney, Clarence Muse, and Noble Johnson. The screenplay by Joseph Jackson and Maude Fulton is based on a play by Houston Branch. As a published work from 1931, the film will enter the American public domain on January 1, 2027.
Plot
Gilda Karlson is a prostitute in New Orleans, accused of murdering Piet Van Saal, the man responsible for ending her former job as a secretary and leading her into prostitution. Her old boyfriend, sailor Carl Erickson, smuggles her to safety to Tortuga, an island in the Caribbean Sea from which she cannot be extradited. On the island, Gilda and Carl get "married" without a clergyman to officiate, and she swears to be faithful to him. After Carl leaves on his ship, Gilda discovers she is the only white woman in a hotel full of international criminals, all of whom try to seduce her. Especially persistent is Mr. Bruno, who describes himself as "the jailer and executioner of this island". He intercepts letters Carl sends to her and steals the support money he includes.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1766137. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1931 and 2027.
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This entry incorporates text from “Safe in Hell” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.