The Moth

entertaining pre-code thriller
Firstly, no, this isn't some wiggy 1930's horror movie about a giant moth terrorising a big city. 1934's THE MOTH (aka "Seeing It Through") casts former burlesque dancer and silent movie star Sally O'Neil in one of her final leading roles as a shamed heiress who runs into even more trouble with a pair of jewel thieves.

Disgraced and disinherited after she's photographed dancing in her underfrillies at a big New York society party, heiress Diana Wyman (O'Neil) decides to run away to the relative anominity of New Orleans at the height of the mardi gras season. During the rail trip, Diana befriends Marie (Rae Daggett), a dancer who moonlights as notorious jewel burglar "The Moth", all the while being tailed by one of the employees of her guardian...

Entertaining piece of nonsense. Petite, saucer-eyed Sally O'Neil is charming in the lead, though sadly, a combination of the transition to talkies and severe bouts of stage fright prematurely ended her screen career...





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