The Devil's Daughter
Cast & Crew
Arthur Leonard
Nina Mae Mckinney
Jack Carter
Ida James
Hamtree Harrington
Willa Maclane
Film Details
Synopsis
In Jamaica, after a song and a cockfight, Percy Jackson, a Harlem confidence man with dice, tries to win the fighter roosters. However, the Jamaicans catch on to Percy, even though Elvira, Sylvia Walton's servant, likes him. Sylvia also is recently arrived from New York and is the educated younger half sister of Isabelle Walton, who has been running their late father's banana plantation, although he willed it to Sylvia. While she has long been loved by John Lowden, Sylvia now favors her overseer, Philip Ramsay, irritating John. Elvira takes Percy to Isabelle, who is now hiding out in the jungle, and Isabelle tells Percy that his soul has been transferred into a particular pig, which must be protected. Sylvia is unnerved by Jamaican superstitions, and anxious to maintain control of the plantation, Isabelle hopes to scare her into returning to New York. Philip proposes marriage to Sylvia, but she waits to give him her answer, agreeing to meet Isabelle and proposing to split the estate with her. Isabelle wants all or nothing, however, and also wants John's love for herself. Subsequently, Isabelle has Sylvia's drink drugged, so that Isabelle, whose mother was Haitian, can subject her to the obeah blood dance ritual. John overhears Philip planning to leave with Sylvia's money, and after a fight, Philip confesses Isabelle's plans. As Isabelle recites the death incantation, John interrupts the ceremony. Elvira and Percy also arrive on the scene, having spent the evening searching for Percy's "soul" pig, unaware that the cook has already slaughtered it. John reunites the two sisters, and after Isabelle explains to Percy that the pig story was a joke, they all sit down for a meal of roast pork.
Director
Arthur Leonard
Cast
Nina Mae Mckinney
Jack Carter
Ida James
Hamtree Harrington
Willa Maclane
Emmett Wallace
Crew
Film Details
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The Devil's Daughter was also reviewed under the title Pocomania, a word used by "Isabelle" to describe the "obeah." Although no specific release date has been located, December 1939 reviews suggest that the film May have been released at that time. According to Film Daily, the picture was filmed in Jamaica. Modern sources specify the location as Kingston, Jamaica, and note that it marked the only time a black American film was made there. Modern sources also, indicate that the production company was Domino Film Corp. Although reviews and modern sources commonly identify "Isabelle" as a practitioner of voodoo, this word is never used in the film. Instead, her supposed magical power is called "obeah."
