I Married a Savage

In prison, Father Kane brings Morgan, who has been convicted of killing his wife, the news that the governor has rejected his plea for a stay of execution. Morgan then decides to sell the story of how he came to this sorry end to a newspaper and reporter Gary Smith takes down his tale: During World War II, Morgan is in a USO troupe on its way to North Africa when their ship is struck by a mine and he was washed ashore somewhere on the African coast. After stumbling through the wilderness for several days, he passes out and wakens in a native hut, where a native girl, Zorita, hides him from her tribesmen, who hate whites, and nurses him back to health. Morgan teaches her English and she tells him that her family is descended from whites who came to the jungle generations ago. Her ancestors were suspicious of white strangers and incited their tribesmen to do away with any whites who wandered into their domain. The fruit juice medicine Zorita is giving Morgan makes him intoxicated and is addictive. Later, after an airplane crashes nearby, Zorita tells Morgan that the pilot was killed and butchered by her tribesmen and that he can expect the same if discovered. Zorita is trying to avoid marriage to a tribal chief, but after she performs a sacred marriage dance with a python, she and Morgan realize that they love each other and escape from the village. On a beach, they build a fire, which is seen by a passing freighter. After the freighter picks them up, they are married by the ship's captain. However, Zorita has insisted on bringing her sacred snake along and, as the captain will not permit it in the cabin, she spends most of her honeymoon keeping the snake company in the ship's hold. When they arrive in New York, Morgan has trouble finding a place to stay because of the python and starts drinking. Eventually, an ex-circus performer, who does not mind snakes, lets them stay in his rooming house. Zorita warns Morgan, who has a deep-rooted fear of snakes, that if any harm should befall the sacred snake, they will suffer a horrible fate. Morgan visits a theatrical agent who is unable to find work for him, but offers to book Zorita and her snake dance at fifteen hundred dollars per week. Morgan gets drunk and returns to Zorita with the news, but she refuses to perform their sacred, ritual love dance for other people, saying that it is like asking her to go with other men. Zorita then runs away and Morgan searches for her. Later in the apartment, Morgan finds Zorita dead, her body ravaged by knife wounds. Back in the prison, Morgan tells the reporter that he vaguely remembers a policeman yanking a knife out of his hand but states that he is puzzled by what had transpired. He swears that he thought he was killing the snake as it was destroying his marriage, but when the room was searched there was no sign of it. After Morgan concludes his story, Father Kane declares his belief that Morgan did not knowingly kill his wife, and Morgan is now ready to face his execution.