This week’s mystery movie has been the 1932 Fox picture “Call Her Savage,” directed by John Francis Dillon, with a screenplay by Edwin Burke from the bestselling novel by Tiffany Thayer.  With Clara Bow, Gilbert Roland, Thelma Todd, Monroe Owsley, Estelle Taylor, Weldon Heyburn, Willard Robertson, Anthony Jowitt, Fred Kohler, Russell Simpson, Margaret Livingston, Carl Stockdale and Dorothy Peterson.

“Call Her Savage” was Bow’s first film with Fox after parting ways with Paramount and the movie was billed as her “comeback” after being absent from the screen since “Kick In.”  Bow made one more movie for Fox, “Hoopla,” before retiring from the screen.

One reviewer said of Thayer’s book: “Savage is too dignified a term. Nasa is a sadist, a neurotic, a scalper, a madwoman, or she is perhaps more fitly called the purple figment of nightmarish dreams, conceived by the author in a brainstorm and thenceforth rationalized by him for some three hundred pages.”

The film opened in Los Angeles on Nov. 30, 1932 at Loews State with the Pete Smith short “Football Footwork.”

Mordaunt Hall of the New York Times said (Nov. 25, 1932): “It is scarcely an offering that can be recommended for its plausibility, but who knows but that there may be a girl somewhere like Nasa Springer. Miss Bow does quite well by the rôle of this fiery-tempered impulsive Nasa, but whether the flow of incidents makes for satisfactory entertainment is a matter of opinion.”

In a review for the Los Angeles Times on Dec. 2, 1932,, John Scott noted that “her fans turned out in droves,” but said: ” ‘Call Her Savage,’ which the more discriminating theatergoers will undoubtedly deem tasteless and at times even unpleasant, gives the star opportunity to reveal her natural acting talents, but in so doing, requires her in one sequence to take to the street to provide medicine for her sick baby. A poignant note, but a questionable one.”

A restored print will be shown in New York on Wednesday as part of Film Forum’s “IT GIRLS, Flappers, Jazz Babies and Vamps” series, on Wednesday, March 23.

”Call Her Savage” is available from Fox Cinema Archives at various outlets such as Amazon, listing at $19.98.

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And for Friday, we have a mystery comedy in which a billboard for Ben-Hur Coffee inspires some mystery young people to stage a chariot race.

This is the final entry in this week’s mystery movies and there haven’t been any easy ones. I still haven’t heard from a couple regulars in the Brain Trust, so I will wait until Monday to lift the veil of mystery to give them a little more time.

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Several members of the Brain Trust have noted that this week’s photos are unusually tough, which is quite true. The reason for their difficulty will become clear in good time.

For Thursday, we have a mystery movie starring a mystery little person.

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As I noted yesterday, I’m doing the mystery movie posts a bit differently this week. For reasons that will become clear at a future date, I’m posting multiple images from a mystery movie each day, rather than stringing them out for a week.

Image No. 1 shows a rustic gent.

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I’m going to try something different this week. Instead of posting one image per day and identifying the mystery movie at the end of the week, I am going to post several images per day from the same mystery movie, ending the week with five puzzlers instead of one.  Let’s see how this works.

Update: The Brain Trust did excellent work on these photos — but one distinguished member is away from his computer, so we will await further posting until Mike Hawks can offer his insights.  Thanks to Mary Mallory, Don Danard and Sheila.

In Photo No. 1, we have two mystery chaps.

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This week’s mystery movie has been the 1938 Twentieth Century-Fox picture “The Baroness and the Butler,” with William Powell, Annabella (in her American screen debut), Helen Westley, Henry Stephenson, Joseph Schildkraut, J. Edward Bromberg, Nigel Bruce and Lynn Bari.  The movie was directed by Walter Lang, with a screenplay by Sam Hellman, Lamar Trotti and Kathryn Scola from  a play by Ladislaus Bus-Fekete (often Bush-Fekete), “The Lady Has a Heart.”

“The Baroness and the Butler” is available on DVD from Amazon for $18.39.

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This week’s mystery movie has been the 1945 MGM picture “Yolanda and the Thief,” starring Fred Astaire, Lucille Bremer, Frank Morgan, Mildred Natwick, Mary Nash, Leon Ames and Ludwig Stossel. The screenplay was by Irvin Brecher based on a story by Jacques Thery and Ludwig Bemelmans (the author of the Madeline books), with songs by Arthur Freed and Harry Warren and choreography by Eugene Loring.    The picture was photographed in Technicolor by Charles Rosher, produced by Arthur Freed and directed by  Vincente Minnelli.

“Yolanda and the Thief” springs from the fad during World War II for movies with a Latin American atmosphere. It was based on a story by Bemelmans published in Town and Country in 1943, according to Emanuel Levy’s biography of Minnelli. Listing E.Y. Harburg as the producer, the Los Angeles Times (July 26, 1943) explained that “MGM entered the fray [in making Latin American pictures] with a planned musical that promises the height of novelty” with a plot was a fantasy based on Latin American sources. Early casting for the film included Victor Moore in the role ultimately taken by Frank Morgan as Fred Astaire’s slightly disreputable sidekick and Lucille Ball co-starring with Lucille Bremer in an unspecified role. Hume Cronin was also mentioned for a part in the film.

“Yolanda” is available on DVD from Warner Archive for $16.59.

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This week’s mystery movie has been the 1932 First National Pictures film “Frisco Jenny,” directed by William A. Wellman, from a screenplay by Wilson Mizner and Robert Lord, based on a story by Gerald Beaumont, Lillie Hayward and John Francis Larkin. It was photographed by Sid Hickox with period gowns by Orry-Kelly.

It featured Ruth Chatterton, Louis Calhern, Helen Jerome Eddy, Donald Cook, James Murray, Hallam Cooley, Pat O’Malley, Harold Huber, Robert Emmett O’Connor and Willard Robertson.

Jan. 4, 1933, “Frisco Jenny” is opening in Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles Times review by Muriel Babcock (a byline I don’t recall) describes “Frisco Jenny” as “a tear-jerker of the first water, the kind that brings handkerchiefs to the fore in profusion.” She added that the movie “is good melodrama, good box office and good fun — if you like to weep. It is not a great picture — it is much too lurid for such designation.”

She said: “….It gives Ruth Chatterton an opportunity to emote such as she hasn’t had since she painted in strong emotional hues the mother character of ‘Madame X,’ since she enacted ‘Sarah and Son.’ And it shows that the able Ruth Chatterton of drawing room comedies is probably at her best when she is yanking heart strings.”

The New York Times (Jan. 7, 1933) review by Mordaunt Hall was unenthusiastic:  “It is a narrative of an unfortunate unwed mother which is reminiscent of ‘Madame X.’ Miss Chatterton does splendidly by her role, but even her acting does not compensate for the unedifying incidents, which make bootlegging seem like a wholesome adventure.”

According to the New York Times (Dec. 4, 1932), Chatterton unsuccessfully fought with Warner Bros. to have a voice in selecting scripts, but the studio delivered an ultimatum that no star had a right to “dictate on vehicles.” “Her displeasure is said to have been acute,” the New York Times said. As for “Frisco Jenny,” Chatterton “opposed the selection with vigor, but the ultimatum had been delivered and there was little she could do.”

The New York Times said that although Chatterton’s films were profitable, Warners felt she was being paid too much.

According to her obituary in the New York Times (Nov. 25, 1961), Chatterton left Hollywood after appearing in “Dodsworth” (1936), made several pictures in England and returned to the stage. She was the author of several best-selling novels, including “Homeward Borne,” “The Betrayers,” “The Pride of the Peacock” and “The Southern Wild.”

At the time “Frisco Jenny” was made, Chatterton was married to George Brent, whom she divorced in 1934. She died Nov. 24, 1961, at the age of 67.

“Frisco Jenny” was released on DVD in 2009 as part of TCM’s “Forbidden Hollywood Collection: Volume Three,” but apparently is no longer available from TCM. The collection is listed on Amazon for about $140.

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