In the era of pre-Code Hollywood, Warner Brothers took the lead over all other studios in terms of producing films with racy and risque subject matter. One of that studio's key directors, William A. Wellman, made some strong films that challenged then-conventional mores by enacting scenarios of debauchery. For the epitome of this genre, you need look no further than Wellman's Safe in Hell (1931), a sensational drama about a prostitute who kills a john and escapes to a South Pacific island only to discover that it is populated with every pervert and lecher imaginable.

In recent years, film historians have taken note of some of the more salacious melodramas from the MGM catalog of the early 1930's that also led directly to the Hays Code, a Hollywood form of self-censorship established in 1934 to deflect growing criticism by religious organizations. Foremost among these films was Kongo (1932), a dark, unsavory revenge drama that was completely out of step with MGM's usual glossy output at this time (with the possible exception of Tod Browning's Freaks, their other controversial offering of the year).

Set in the African jungles, Kongo offers an unsettling portrait of an embittered and deranged megalomaniac who vents his rage against his imagined enemies. Walter Huston (in a robust performance) plays Flint, a former magician who lost the use of his legs during a battle with his wife's lover, Gregg (C. Henry Gordon). Years later, a young woman named Ann (Virginia Bruce) pays a visit to Flint. Believing her to be the daughter of his arch-rival Gordon, he gleefully embarks on a reign of terror, subjecting Ann to such psychological torment that she is nearly destroyed. But why stop there? Flint also sees to it that the new village doctor (Conrad Nagel) becomes addicted to drugs and at the same time inflicts numerous degradations on the woman who loves him (Lupe Velez). The horror continues until Gregg is lured to the jungle compound thus setting in motion Flint's final act of revenge.

The plot alone was enough to cause controversy as it had every element the Hays Code would later list as unmentionable: rape, torture, drug addiction, alcoholism, and sado-masochism. Director Cowen's blunt, sledgehammer approach to the material is downright relentless in its intemperance, imbuing the film with the kind of overheated sexuality that religious organizations found immoral. Equally disturbing is the original 1928 silent version of the film - West of Zanzibar - starring Lon Chaney in the role of Flint. It's a tossup as to which version is the most depraved but both films inadvertently contributed to a new era of censorship in Hollywood.

Director: William Cowen
Screenplay: Leon Gordon (based on the play by Chester De Vonde and Kilbourn Gordon)
Cinematography: Harold Rosson
Editor: Conrad A. Nervig
Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons
Cast: Walter Huston (Flint), Virginia Bruce (Ann), Lupe Velez (Tula), Conrad Nagel (Dr. Kingsland), C. Henry Gordon (Gregg), Mitchell Lewis (Hogan), Forrester Harvey (Cookie Harris).
BW-87m.

By Michael Toole