Holiday for Sinners

This belongs to a small and select group of movies. These are the big-studio movies with known performers that are, nevertheless, absolutely awful. Another in this category is "The Guilt Of Janet Ames," which is at least more amusingly terrible.

Maybe Gig Young wanted to play an idealistic tough-guy doctor. Maybe Keenan Wynn wanted to show his chops playing a down-and-out fighter battling blindness. Someone must have had a reason of some sort for casting them in these roles.

The story about three boyhood friends takes place in New Orleans; yet many of the players, Wynn most noticeably, affect heavy Bronx accents. (The third friend is a Roman Catholic priest. His part seems to have been trimmed to almost nothing in the print I saw.)

Wynn seems to be wearing contact lenses that make his pupils appear cloudy. His performance isn't bad, really, but he is cast against type and in a one-dimensional role. It's a no-win situation. As is the whole movie.

"Holiday for Sinners" is a film that lost money when it was released. After watching it, I can certainly understand why. Now it's NOT because it's a bad movie...but it's incredibly grim and unpleasant.

The story is set in New Orleans and it's about three different people reaching important crossroads in their lives. Dr. Kent (Gig Young) is a burnt out doctor who is sick of working with the down and out masses and longs to leave to do research. He's somehow friends with Joe (Keenan Wynn), a down and out boxer who is bling, an alcoholic and punch drunk. And, Father Carducci (Richard Anderson) is suffering from a crisis of faith and it considering leaving the church. How do their stories all intersect, see the film...or don't.

The biggest plus about the movie is that it is actually filmed in New Orleans. Other than that and some decent acting, there isn't a lot to love about this one, as I said it's quite grim. There's even a scene with two bodies lying in the street. They've been shot and it's actually amazingly vivid and depressing. And, by the time the final credits roll, you really feel like drowning yourself in your tub! Inexplicably depressing and seemingly pointless.

Dr. Jason Kent (Gig Young), Father Victor Carducci (Richard Anderson), and Joe Piavi (Keenan Wynn) are childhood friends from a poor New Orleans neighborhood. They have followed different paths. Kent is tired of working tirelessly in a clinic for the poor. He is quitting to join a comfortable, lucrative job. His girlfriend Susan Corvier (Janice Rule) is uncertain. Carducci is considering leaving the church. Former boxer Joe Piavi is a drunk and broke. He is obsessed with collecting $1500 from his former manager. It's Mardi Gras. Crooked reporter Danny Farber (William Campbell) will do anything for a story.

This needs a ticking clock or a definitive approaching end or something to heighten the intensity. The plot mostly meanders as Joe spirals downwards. Maybe Kent and Carducci should team up to track him down. The three friends premise is almost unnecessary. The most compelling part is really the story about Farber and Piavi.

In brief, the screenplay is a mess, lacking in both direction and point. It looks like it's supposed to follow three story threads, namely, three childhood friends still living in a seedy part of New Orleans. However, one thread, the priest, pretty much evaporates, while the other two, the ex-fighter and the doctor, simply flounder from one scene to the next, reaching a climax so abruptly awkward, they may have run out of film. If there's a governing concept to the pottage, I can't find it

Too bad, because there's a lot of talent involved. Campbell and Rule especially shine in supporting parts, even though Wynn spreads on the punch-drunk fighter pretty thick. What really puzzles me, however, is the talent behind the scenes. Writer Bezzerides is responsible for some of the best noirs of the time, e.g. On Dangerous Ground (1952), Thieves' Highway (1949); at the same time, producer John Houseman was a long-time prestige producer and collaborator with Orson Welles. Given these proved track records, what's on screen here stacks up as a genuine puzzlement. There must be an inside story and I suspect it has something to do with the studio, MGM, which was a late comer to B-movie b&w and not much good at it, anyway. Whatever the reason, at least this odd misfire plays off the colorful background of New Orleans Mardi Gras, which is about the only reason to watch.

This film was supposed to be about three characters growing up and drifting apart. It goes nowhere. There is very little insight into the characters and the plot is disjointed. Four stars for Keenan Wynn who does a great job with what he's given.