Call Her Savage (1932) in Color — Starring Clara Bow & Gilbert Roland

Call Her Savage (1932) — Buy This Classic in Color

Call Her Savage is a 1932 pre-Code drama directed by John Francis Dillon and starring Clara Bow in one of her final and most uninhibited screen roles. The film pairs Bow with Gilbert Roland, Thelma Todd, Monroe Owsley, and Estelle Taylor in a story that follows a restless Texas heiress from a wild frontier childhood to a reckoning with her own origins. It is a melodrama of passion, money, and mistaken identity, made in the brief window before Hollywood’s Production Code began policing what screens could show. Bow, the original “It” girl, plays Nasa Springer with a fire that still reads as startling. Own this classic movie in color as a DRM-free MP4 digital download for just €15.00.

Plot Summary

The film opens on the Texas frontier, where a young Nasa Springer is already too much for her surroundings. Her father, Silas Springer, is a hard, unyielding man who cannot control his daughter’s temper or her appetite for trouble. After a violent incident involving a Native American man who defends her, the family sends Nasa away to Chicago, hoping distance and discipline will tame her. It does not. She arrives in the city with the same reckless energy, and the film wastes no time showing that Nasa is a woman who acts before she thinks.

In Chicago, Nasa falls in with a fast set and meets Darcy, a brooding man played by Gilbert Roland, who becomes the emotional center of her life. Their relationship is volatile from the start: attraction, resentment, and misunderstanding in equal measure. Nasa also crosses paths with Sunny De Lane, played by Thelma Todd, a woman whose glamour and easy confidence contrast sharply with Nasa’s raw intensity. Around them circles a world of moneyed men, including Lawrence Crosby, played by Monroe Owsley, whose interest in Nasa is never entirely honorable.

Nasa marries, and the marriage collapses almost immediately. Her husband cannot handle her independence, and she cannot pretend to be the docile wife he expects. The failure drives her further into recklessness, and she drifts through a series of encounters that leave her more isolated each time. The film is frank about her desires in a way that few 1932 releases dared to be, and Bow plays every impulsive choice without apology.

A turning point comes when Nasa learns something about her own parentage that reframes everything she believed about herself. The revelation touches on her father’s past and on the violence that shaped her childhood, and it forces her to reconsider why she has always felt like an outsider in her own family. The film handles this material with the bluntness of pre-Code storytelling, letting the implications land rather than softening them.

By the final act, Nasa has lost nearly everything she once took for granted, and she faces a choice about what kind of life she is willing to accept. The people who claimed to love her have mostly revealed their limits, and the one relationship that might have saved her has been damaged by her own hand as much as by circumstance. The ending hinges on a question the whole film has been building toward: whether Nasa’s nature was something she was born with or something the world made her, and whether knowing the difference can change anything at all.

Cast & Crew

Director: John Francis Dillon
Stars: Clara Bow, Gilbert Roland, Thelma Todd, Monroe Owsley, Estelle Taylor

Why Buy This Classic in Color?

This colorized edition transforms a film that has too often been seen only in murky, worn prints. The colorization restores the period detail that black and white flattens: the dusty earth tones of the Texas frontier sequences, the warm wood and heavy fabric of the Springer household, the cool, polished surfaces of Chicago apartments where Nasa’s city life plays out. Costume colour matters enormously here — the gowns and daywear of 1932 read as fashion history once the palette is returned to them, and Thelma Todd’s wardrobe in particular gains a dimension that monochrome hides. The restoration also clarifies contrast and shadow, so faces and expressions come through more cleanly, which serves a performance-driven film where Bow’s eyes do much of the work. This is a professionally colourised restoration, not a studio colour release, and it is presented here as a DRM-free MP4 download. Buy it at €15.00 and start watching instantly.

Historical Significance

Call Her Savage arrived in 1932, near the end of the pre-Code era, when Hollywood was still willing to put adultery, sexual desire, and social taboos on screen without the moralizing that would soon become mandatory. The film is frequently cited as one of the clearest examples of what pre-Code cinema could do, and it remains a key title for anyone studying that period. It was also a significant release for Clara Bow, who had become one of the most famous stars of the silent era and was navigating the transition to sound. Her performance here is often described as among her most fearless.

John Francis Dillon was a prolific director of the late silent and early sound periods, and Call Her Savage shows his comfort with both the physical staging of frontier scenes and the tighter, dialogue-driven interiors of the Chicago sequences. The supporting cast is unusually strong for a melodrama of this scale, with Gilbert Roland, Thelma Todd, Monroe Owsley, and Estelle Taylor all given material that lets them register as more than background figures.

The film’s reputation has grown over the decades as pre-Code cinema has been rediscovered and re-evaluated. It matters today not only as a Clara Bow showcase but as a document of what American movies were willing to say about women’s autonomy before the rules changed. Colorization brings it to new audiences who might otherwise pass over a black-and-white 1932 melodrama, and it gives longtime admirers a fresh way to see a film they thought they knew.

Technical Details

• Format: MP4 / MKV digital download
• Resolution: HD 720p
• Colorized: Professionally colorized from original black and white
• Audio: English original mono
• Runtime: 88 minutes
• DRM-free: Yes — watch on any device
• Instant download: Available immediately after purchase
• Price: €15.00 (token, rendered by the site)

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Movie-Specific Questions

Q: Was Call Her Savage originally released in color?
A: No. Call Her Savage was shot in black and white and released that way in 1932. This page offers a later professional colorized restoration, not a studio colour release.

Q: Is this really one of Clara Bow’s last films?
A: Yes. Call Her Savage is widely regarded as one of Clara Bow’s final starring roles, and her performance as Nasa Springer is often singled out as one of her boldest.

Q: What makes this a pre-Code film?
A: Call Her Savage was released in 1932, before the Production Code was strictly enforced, which allowed the film to address sexual desire, marital breakdown, and social taboos far more directly than Hollywood films would shortly be permitted to do.

Digital Download Questions

Q: What format is the download?
A: The film is delivered as MP4 and MKV files that play on virtually any device.
Q: Is there DRM on the file?
A: No. The download is completely DRM-free so you can watch it on any device without restrictions.
Q: How quickly can I watch after purchase?
A: Your download link is available instantly after payment, so you can start watching within minutes.

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