Good start, but then it gets ruined

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Poor Georgette Harvey, the singer and actress who played the supporting role of Maria in both the original "Porgy" and its musical version, "Porgy and Bess". She made only a handful of films which document her acting on screen, unlike her stage work which is lost forever. In this way below Z grade exploitation film, she plays an evil mammy obsessed with revenge, directed to overact and thus be preserved as long as this film survives as a representation of one of the most sinister of black stereotypes. Coming off feisty but kindly in the first reel, she quickly turns, taking the light skinned young woman (Olive Borden) she claims to be her daughter back to her home to avenge the death of her father whom she claims was Borden's father. Of course, she's got all the facts wrong, and looks on with sinister intent as Borden falls in love with the white Reed Howes who works for wealthy plantation owner Francis Joyner whom Harvey blames for lynching her dead husband. The revenge includes the use of black magic, aka "voodoo", and that leads to a ceremony where Joyner's niece (Molly O'Day) is kidnapped and prepped to be a sacrifice.I give this more than a "bomb" rating simply because it made me laugh (even though I felt guilty about laughing) at how ridiculous the whole story it was. I am way beyond judging films for long gone viewpoints of blacks and other minorities in films, even though this is obviously considered way beyond offensive today. I consider this a truly lousy film in the sense that the dialog is outlandish, the plot contrived, and any realistic motivations guiding the characters completely absent. Borden and O'Day, completely forgotten today, were once major young ingenues in early talkies, and other than one scene where O'Day makes her concerns known about welcoming Borden into the family known to her uncle, there is really no dynamic for intrigue concerning their characters. There's really a lack of a showdown between Harvey and Joyner, only the slightest resolution of their conflict, and never believable. Some stereotypical "Uncle Tom" type characters try to lighten down the presentation of blacks as evil devil worshipers, but even their patronizing behavior towards Joyner (pretty much made out to be almost saintly) is a bit disconcerting as well. This is the type of film I would consider like the presentation of "Glen or Glenda" as seen by a Paramount executive in "Ed Wood": the type of a film made and sent to someone in the hierarchy seemingly as a joke.

A black voodoo priestess comes out of the Louisiana swamps to take revenge on the white plantation owner she believes killed her husband.This was produced by some small independent company called Pinnacle. It's a production company that distributed a handful of these plantation movies in the 20s and 30s. Some other reviewer here who obviously has an ax to grind, claims the black actors are played by white people. He probably thinks the Amos & Andy TV show featured white actors in blackface too. To be fair, there are two characters who are supposed to be black but are white. The title character, Chloe is supposed to be of mixed race and she is played by a famous silent film star. This is her last picture. Her star had dimmed and she wound up first joining the army (WACS) after this film and years later was found scrubbing floors for a living. In 1947, at the age of 40, she died of a "stomach ailment" at the Sunshine Mission - a home for destitute women on Los Angeles' Skid Row.One of her two love interests is white too, playing a black man.If you really examine the film, the white characters are all stereotypes -- rich, sauntering around in white suits drinking frilly drinks talking about their deals. While a few others are working class with hillbilly accents. The black characters are largely silent and working plantation. Except for the voodoo priestess who has a fair amount of dialog. This women was up for the role of Mammy in Gone with the Wind.What I'm saying is this: the film is far more complicated than just a knee jerk response of saying all the blacks are stereotypes. Everybody in this movie is a stereo type of some sort. And casting a white actress (probably because she was a real star at one time, hence an audience draw) would make it hard back then to cast a true black man as a romantic interest. Conversely, how could they cast a black actress with a white love interest in 1934?To a degree you can almost make the case that this movie is an allegory for the unfairness of race relations. In today's world of political correctness I suppose few are willing to look beyond a kool-aide drinking response to the content of the movie.Chloe and white Reed fall in love because of what's inside, not because of race or wealth or anything else.So is it a good movie? To be honest, the available prints are bad. The focus is off and the sound is poor, so it's a wee bit difficult to follow the story. At some point we find out that Chloe is actually the colonel's lost daughter who disappeared at birth. But the Colonel welcomes her with open arms, and that's likely not to happen if she was half black in those times.The women in the film are the ones to question whether or not Chloe is really the colonel's daughter, saying "she's so dark." Again a comment on racist mindsets and small minded people.I found the movie to be very watchable despite to poor print quality. I think it deserves a new look, perhaps with a complete print. The DVD prints have 8 minutes cut out of them and one wonders what's in those 8 minutes! Some reviewers have said it's typical that the white man comes out on top in this movie, but the real moral of the movie is that love comes out on top.If you have an open mind and are sick of people with an agenda, take a look at this movie. It's not a great film, but it's an interesting curio piece that probably deserves to be restored.

It isn't just that it's the most racist movie I've seen in a long time. It's just not very good. You have major parts played by white actors. In black and white, they don't even look dark. Then you have the ridiculous premise where the woman of "white blood" has longings she just can't explain. She is tilting toward her whiteness. Of course, it's obvious who the superior race is here. They lounge with their juleps and order the servants around. The "hero" is a monumental jerk, but he is a white guy. There's lots of talk about the problems of mixing with other races and it's a given, of course. The blacks also dance around doing their voodoo rites, totally "out of control." It's up to the landholder and his rich friends to take care of them. Also, Chloe was raised and loved by these people, but when she is revealed as a one hundred percent white woman, well, you can imagine what they're thinking. I realize how unenlightened people were (and how hateful). But it must have been viewed as a horrible depiction, even back in the 30's. I know that there is an historical perspective that applies here. Maybe we should all see this kind of stuff once in a while.

Awful, just awful story about a young white woman raised by a black voodoo woman. If the NAACP ever saw this they would throw a fit. There are white actors playing black with virtually no make-up. The actress playing Chloe is having a terrible life until she finds out she is really white. Story is basically a rich old southern gentlemen lost his daughter when she was just a child. An old black woman lost her own daughter and kidnapped Chloe and raised her as her own. There is love interest and plotted revenge by the black voodoo woman, but in the end the father and daughter are reunited. No matter what the VHS advertisements say, this is not a lost classic nor even remotely close to a horror movie. Do not watch it.