Pre Code Hollywood Season: FD Cinematheque

The Flaming Signal (1933)

Director: George Jeske, Charles E Roberts

Cast: Marceline Day, John David Horsley, Noah Beery, Henry B Walthall, Carmelita Geraghty, Mischa Auer, Francisco Alonso, Anya Gramina

64 min

A pilot and his dog crash-land on an island run by a psycho who owns a motel–and most of the locals. With Marceline Day and John David Horsley.

Plot

While aviator Lieutenant James Robbins signs his autograph on the leg of an attractive, admiring French girl at a crowded airfield as he prepares to fly from Los Angeles to Hawaii, Flash, his German shepherd, grabs a parachute and sneaks into the plane.

Thirty hours later, Jim survives a fierce lightning storm, but afterward his engine catches fire. Flash parachutes to Tabu Island, just south of Hawaii, and Jim crashes in the ocean. The dog finds Jim unconscious hanging onto a broken wing and pushes him to shore.

After Flash finds Sally James, daughter of a missionary, swimming nude in a lake, she and her father take Jim and Flash to the trading post and bar run by drunken Otto Von Krantz, who exploits the natives and, with his blonde barmaid Molly, encourages them to drink and spend the money that he pays them for the pearls they find. Jim and Flash wait for the weekly boat to come, and three days later, while Sally and Jim hold hands and watch the natives dance, Von Krantz rapes chief Manu’s daughter Rari.

When Manu orders Von Krantz to leave the island, Von Krantz shoots him. The natives hold a ritual to bring Manu back to life and keep the white people captive in Von Krantz’s bar, but Flash sneaks out with a torch and lights a pyre to signal search planes. Manu rises and Reverend James goes to speak with him, but Von Krantz shoots Manu and a native knifes the reverend.

After Jim knocks out Von Krantz and escapes from the bar with Sally, Flash bites Von Krantz to death as Molly watches. After Jim and Sally bury her father, Flash attacks a native about to spear them from above and falls with the native over a cliff. A plane lands in the water, and as natives approach, Jim, Sally and a limping Flash escape to the plane.

Cast


Flash the Dog	…	Flash (as Flash)
John David Horsley	…	Lt. Jim Robbins (as John Horsley)
Marceline Day	…	Molly James
Noah Beery	…	Otto Von Krantz
Henry B. Walthall	…	Rev. Mr. James
Carmelita Geraghty	…	Molly
Mischa Auer	…	Manu–High Priest
Francisco Alonso	…	Taku
Jane’e Olmes	…	Rari
Anya Gramina	…	French Girl