Safe in Hell
Gilda Karlson (Dorothy Mackaill) is a New Orleans prostitute. She is accused of murdering Piet Van Saal (Ralf Harolde), the man responsible for ending her life as a secretary and leading her into prostitution. Her old boyfriend, sailor Carl Erickson (Donald Cook), smuggles her to safety on Tortuga, an island in the Caribbean from which she cannot be extradited. On the island, Gilda and Carl get "married" without a clergyman to officiate, and she swears to be faithful to him. After Carl leaves on his ship, Gilda finds herself to be the only white woman in a hotel full of international criminals, all of whom try to seduce her. Especially persistent is Bruno (Morgan Wallace), the island's executioner, who steals the money that Carl sends her, with the hope that she will think that Carl has abandoned her.
Van Saal arrives on the island, having ditched his wife, on the lam with the life insurance money he collected after his "death". Bruno gives Gilda a gun to protect herself. When Van Saal attacks her, she kills him. She is put on trial and is about to be acquitted by a sympathetic jury, when Bruno tells her that he will have her arrested for possessing an illegal firearm unless she has sex with him. To foil Bruno's trap, Gilda gives a false confession at her trial, preferring to die rather than to break her vow to Carl. She is convicted and sent to the gallows.
murder