The Moth (1934) On DVD

A hot tip leads police to a wild party where partially-clad society playgirl, Diane Wyman, entertains revelers with a wantonly seductive dance. A news photographer takes a snapshot of her, drunk, half-naked,and under arrest. The photo makes the front page, and the resultant public scandal costs Diane an inheritance due to a morals clause in her daddy's will. Broke and with nothing to lose, she boards a train bound for New Orleans, hoping to escape her troubles at the Mardi Gras. She befriends a fellow traveler, a hard-edged burlesque dancer named Marie, and her boyfriend Don Pedro, and soon the high life is back in full swing. But unbeknownst to Diane, Marie is being followed by a private detective, who knows her as the elusive criminal, "The Moth." Before she realizes it, Diane is at the center of trouble again, this time as a prime suspect in a jewelry heist!

Vivacious Sally O'Neil, a former vaudeville performer, found Hollywood fame in her second feature, Sally, Irene and Mary (1925) along with co-stars Constance Bennett and Joan Crawford. Duncan Renaldo, her co-star in The Moth, went on to stardom portraying the Cisco Kid in both film and television.

This Poverty Row potboiler stars Sally O'Neil as Diana Wyman, a madcap heiress who manages to run through most of her family's fortune in record time. Cut off from her inheritance, Diana petulantly leaves for parts unknown. The executor of the Wyman estate, who happens to harbor a crush on Diana, dispatches his young assistant George Duncan (Paul Page) to track the girl down. Duncan catches up with our heroine in New Orleans at Mardi Gras time, and in a twinkling they've fallen in love with each other. Bit player Fred Kelsey received most of the film's praise for his usual role as a bombastic detective.