UCLA Film & Television Archive and Autry Museum of the American West present

Save the Man presents an assembly of titles showcasing an overlooked trend in pre-Code Hollywood: studio films that openly confronted the contemporary consequences of this nation’s fraught history with Indigenous peoples after they were granted citizenship in 1924. Featuring a melodrama about a mixed-race woman coming to terms with her identity, a tale of Native Alaskan revenge, a doomed Navajo Nation bordertown romance, and a violent uprising led by a Wild West Show performer against a corrupt government, these four forgotten films each reflect the era’s affinity for breaking on-screen taboos and imperfect examinations of contemporaneous prejudices. They stand out as being both of their time and beyond the studio filmmaking of today.

Notes written and program curated by Adam Piron.

Special thanks to our community partners: The Chapter House, LA Skins Fest.

Please note that this screening will be held at the Autry Museum. Tickets are available on the Autry Museum website.

Call Her Savage

U.S., 1932

The penultimate role of Hollywood’s original “It Girl,” Clara Bow stars as Nasa Springer, a rebellious, young Texan who burns through life quicker than she can take it in. Her reckless ways take her on a riches-to-rags story accented by flourishes of 1930s opulence and human tragedy, leading her to a startling revelation about her true heritage. Notable for its plays on stereotypes of mixed-race Indigeneity as well as early instances of openly gay characters on screen, Bow’s performance ultimately commands sympathy for the plight of a people unable to fully fit within either of their worlds in the early 20th century.

35mm, b&w, 88 min. Director: John Francis Dillon. Writer: Edwin J. Burke. With: Clara Bow, Gilbert Roland, Thelma Todd.