(Raoul Walsh, 1932, USA, 35mm, 80 min.)

An exceptionally rare pre-Code western-romance-comedy starring Joan Bennett, Charles Farrell, Ralph Bellamy, and Eugene Pallette, and directed by the always-brash Raoul Walsh? What more could you ask for? Filmed on location amongst the majestic California redwoods, the film features a young (and blonde) Joan Bennett as the titular “wild girl”—a nature-loving free-spirit who is wooed by many but who falls for an out-of-town stranger (Farrell). A major highlight of this past year’s Cinema Ritrovato film festival in Bologna, Italy, and MoMA’s film preservation series, Wild Girl shuttles between romance, adventure, raucous comedy, and titillation (a skinny-dipping Bennett). From the opening credit sequence–one of the most memorable of the period, it’s more rowdy fun than one should be allowed in a single sitting.

Preserved by the Museum of Modern Art with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Celeste Bartos Film Preservation Fund.