In the early days of cinema before movie theaters were integrated, black film patrons were eager for films about their community and with black actors. Sadly, however, the production companies making these films (such as Sack--which probably should have been called 'Suck') had minuscule budgets, very inexperienced actors and film makers and generally were quite substandard. While this was not always the case, most of these films I have seen are pretty bad--and considering what the film makers were up against you could certainly understand why. But what I cannot adequately understand is how some of these films ("The Devil's Daughter" is one of them at times) are amazingly racist when seen today--confirming some of white society's preconceptions at the time about the inferiority of blacks! In this particular film, the smart blacks who have good social standing are all lighter-skinned and the darker-skinned actors are often there for comic relief--much like the characters played by the likes of Steppin' Fetchit and Mantan Moreland. Plus the whole voodoo angle certainly is not a great image for black America! From a sociological and historical point of view, it IS very interesting. But it also makes this particular film age horribly...and rather sad.
A black lady from America inherits a family plantation in Jamaica and doesn't realize the dangers involved. There are voodoo practitioners and Haitians on the island who are in league with the devil! In many ways, this film is like the grandfather of later blaxsploitation films like "Sugar Hill" and "Blacula"--but with a much, much smaller budget. Can her incredibly light-skinned boyfriend save her or is she destined to join the side of evil? In the end, there is a surprise twist...not that anyone cares.
Is this a good film? Well, to put it bluntly, NOPE! The currently abysmal score on IMDb (placing it in the bottom 10 for all films from the 1930s) is well earned. Bad acting, scenes that should have been re-short but weren't (they probably could not afford additional film stock) and a dreary pace manage to sink this movie. For example, though the film is set in Haiti, not one person has a Jamaican or Creole (Haitian) accent. And, when the actors do talk, they often stumble over the words--and they sound like they are reading cue cards! Another sad example is the fist fight--it looked almost like it was done in slow motion--presumably because the actors were taking great care not to actually hurt each other! Plus too many scenes of people dancing, having cock fights (insert own tawdry joke) and the like really bog this film down to a crawl.
I'd say this film is even worse than many in the genre--including the somewhat unfairly maligned "Harlem on the Prairie" (the book "The 50 Worst Movies of All Time" considered the worst black production of this pre-integration era). Too much meaningless footage and dullness make this anything other than a curio--and you'd think voodoo and possession would at least be interesting! If you are curious about seeing it, it's on a DVD from Alpha Video (along with another terrible film "Chloe")--just be forewarned that the condition of the print, like many of Alpha's, is very, very poor.
