More Deadly Than the Male

Helen O'Hara, a poised actress‑manager, flirts with the rakish clubman Richard Carlin, a man whose appetite for danger is matched only by his fascination with African women guarded by fierce, jealous males. Richard boasts that the pursuit of such untamed passions eclipses the staid courtship of "civilized" ladies. Helen, ever the orchestrator, introduces Richard to her husband Terry, only to bait his sense of adventure with an invitation to a secluded mountain camp. Their flirtation ignites in a charged embrace that Terry abruptly disrupts, prompting a duel that leaves Terry grievously wounded. In a moment of confession, Helen reveals a collegiate past with Richard and declares her love, just as a dam catastrophically fails. The two scramble to replace the dam’s logs, averting disaster for a downstream hospital housing crippled children. The tension escalates when Richard abducts Helen onto his yacht; police board, Richard leaps into the surf, collides with a patrol boat, and awakens to discover Terry unharmed—revealed as Helen’s brother. The revelation reframes the entire saga: Helen, though labeled "civilized," has deftly ensnared Richard’s heart, subverting gendered expectations and colonial fantasies.