The services of New Orleans call girl Gilda Karlson are requested by a man whose wife is out of town. On arrival, she discovers that the man is Piet Van Saal, whose previous unwelcome advances had led her into prostitution. When Gilda tries to leave, they struggle and she hits him with a vase. Van Saal collapses and Gilda believes he is dead. When the room then catches on fire, she runs away. The next morning, she learns that the building burned down, and that she is wanted for Van Saal’s murder. Just as she is about to run away, her seaman boyfriend, Carl Erickson, arrives in town after a long voyage. He is now an officer and earns enough money to get married. Gilda insists that she can never marry him, and when Carl demands an explanation, she tells him that Van Saal broke into her room while she was working as his secretary, his wife found him there and fired her. After that, she had Gilda fired from every job she took until finally she had to resort to prostitution. At first Carl is furious at Gilda, but when he hears the approaching police sirens and realizes that he still loves her, he relents and smuggles her aboard his ship. He takes her to an island in the Caribbean from where criminals cannot be extradited. Gilda is the only white woman on the island, which is inhabited mainly by criminals. Finding no minister on the island, Carl and Gilda are married in a ceremony they invent themselves. Carl continues his voyage, leaving Gilda behind, sworn to faithfulness. The men at the hotel all try to seduce her, but Gilda remains true to her vow, eventually impressing everybody with her sincerity. The only man who still has designs on Gilda is Bruno, the island’s executioner. He steals the money that Carl sends her, hoping to convince her that she has been forgotten. One day, Van Saal arrives on a ship. Although everyone believes him to be dead, he actually survived the fire, and he and his wife illegally collected his life insurance. Now he intends to hide out on the island until things quiet down. Realizing that she did not actually murder Van Saal, Gilda is eager to return home. Van Saal tells everyone about Gilda’s past, and one of the men, believing he is entitled to her favors, attacks her. Bruno saves her from the assault and gives her a gun, telling her that, although they are illegal on the island, she can have one with his permission. Later, when Van Saal breaks into Gilda’s room, she shoots him. One of the hotel guests, a crooked lawyer, defends her at the trial. She is about to be acquitted when Bruno tells her that even if she gets off, he will jail her for possession of a deadly weapon. He suggests that if she will sleep with him, he will let her go. Rather than break her promise to Carl, she confesses to murder, preferring death to dishonesty. When Carl returns, she agrees to meet him in New Orleans, but after his ship leaves again, goes to her death, having kept her vow. More on Wikipedia or Mubi
Watch Safe in Hell (1931)
