Pecadores sin careta

Remember all those Jean Harlow movies about poor girls wanting to marry rich fellows? If you liked them, check out Carole Lombard and Chester Morris in Sinners in the Sun. Ironically, the same year, Chester played the rich fellow in Jean Harlow's Red-Headed Woman. In this movie, he's a poor garage mechanic in love with Carole. He wants to get married, but she's afraid of a life of poverty. Given her background and growing up in the Great Depression, it's understandable.

Carole and Chester part ways in search of wealthy partners. Carole finds a married man who wants fun on the side, and Chester finds a wealthy woman who likes how he looks in a tuxedo. This pre-Code drama is a bit naughty, with see-through negligees and references to gigolos. Mostly, though, it's a tragedy about two people who think they'll be happier with money than with love. It's always a treat to see Carole in a drama, and Chester gives a great performance as he struggles with his pride. "Did you think I'd cry?" he asks, his voice breaking, when reunited with Carole after they've settled into other lives. If you like this one, check out Swing High, Swing Low.

DLM Warning: If you suffer from vertigo or dizzy spells, like my mom does, this movie might not be your friend. About 45 minutes in, and at 52 minutes in, the camera spins for about thirty seconds, and that will make you sick. In other words, "Don't Look, Mom!"

This 1932 pre-code Paramount Picture, based on a magazine story by Mildred Cram and directed by Alexander Hall, is best remembered today because it contains a bit of Cary Grant in one of the many stiff playboy roles he did before stardom. All in all, it's not much a story, entirely predictable, but as staged expertly by Hall the film does recreate visually the atmosphere of New York and Long Island society that Fitzgerald wrote about in The Great Gatsby a few years before. The actors are all particularly well-cast, down to the smallest part. (Look especially for a few moments with Anderson Lawler as a self-confessing gigolo.) Chester Morris (Boston Blackie) is for once throughly believable in a tough guy up from the streets role, but as usual it's Carole Lombard--she who could do no wrong--who steals the show and carries the picture. She's both lovely and touching and wears many a superb Travis Banton costume. A true star.

As pre-code movies go, this is a great, well-produced and entertaining example. Everything you'd expect is here: The Depression, thwarted aspirations, class conflict, beautiful leading ladies (in sexy lingerie of course) plus good old fashioned moralising.

If you enjoy pictures from this period, you mustn't overlook this often overlooked one. The multi-layered characters are written with depth and realism - they're not the flat dimensionless cartoons who so often appear in films from this era. The story is pretty well trodden but scripted here with life and wit. The theme is that old chestnut: poor girl is seduced by rich man but this time it's doubled up because we get a poor boy (the poor girl's ex) who is also seduced by a rich girl.

Like a Warner Brothers picture, its point of view is from the perspective of the working class people but refreshingly the society characters are not soulless evil villains twiddling their moustaches. They are portrayed as real people too as well with real issues. Their attitudes and sense of entitlement however is cleverly and heavily criticised particularly the way both rich playboy Eric and society gal Claire treat their working class lovers like pets, loved pets yes but not like "their" people. But it's not their fault - it's just the way they are and it reflects the stratified unequal society of the time.

At Belfast's Titanic exhibition, it's explained how imperative it was to separate the 1st and 2nd class passengers from those in 3rd class. It seems crazy to us now that so much effort was put into ensuring that 'nice' people would never ever have the awful experience of actually seeing a poor person. As we see in this fabulous film, if the two classes of people even just see each other, disaster awaits! This treats the horrible disparity between the haves and have-nots in a much more light hearted way than other films but nevertheless still stirs a sense of outrage. This aspect is even subtly imbued in the inevitable girls' dressing room scenes. The rich guys see nothing wrong with walking in on them as are getting changed because they're rich and they're just working class girls. One of those girls might be lucky if Mr wealthy decides to pluck them from their life of drudgery. Welcome to the 1930s!

Besides a profusion of young ladies in their underwear, one big reason to watch this isn't that bloke from Bristol, it's Adrienne Ames! She wasn't really an actress, she didn't make too many pictures, she was 'The celebrity' of the age. Her acting isn't that convincing but she certainly lights up the screen and it's great to see her in a rare leading role.

This simple 1930s film seems to have the underlying theme that a person should be happy with their lot in life and shouldn't want more out of life--a reasonable less considering it was the Depression! When the film begins, Doris (Carole Lombard) and Jimmie (Chester Morris) are in love but to Doris there needs to be much more. This is because although Jimmie has a job, he's not exactly wealthy and she wants money and a fancy life. So, she dumps him and goes off on a search for a rich husband. Jimmie is angry and disgusted but eventually he goes looking for a rich wife. However, even though both have a cushy rich life in front of them, neither is happy.

The biggest reason to see this film is to see Cary Grant in one of his first films. He's reasonably good as a nice rich man but nothing more. As far as the story goes, I liked it but felt the fast run-time was a serious detriment. Because it went by so fast, the story felt more like an object lesson than about real people. But it still was modestly interesting and is worth a look.

A beautifully written and sometimes magnificently played serious movie. Chester Morris and Carole Lombard love each other, but she is terrified of the corrosive effects of the life of poverty that she foresees with Morris. So they break up and drift into lives as a kept woman and a gigolo.

The two are almost perfect in their roles; Chester Morris plays a character who is almost unable to phrase a clear thought and pulls it off beautifully, for a wonderful payoff scene. Miss Lombard only fails in one scene, towards the end, when she is contemplating suicide: I blame the heavy-handed direction of it rather than her performance. But the movie is riddled with wonderful performances: the always excellent Alison Skipworth as Lombard's supportive mother; Reginald Barlow as the father who gives her no chance; Adrienne Ames and Walter Byron as their likable seducers. Particularly good is Rita La Roy, an actress whom I have never noticed before, as a kept woman who kills herself -- alas, this was her best part in the movies, After her career faded out she sold yachts. Cary Grant is also present in a small role, in his second movie, but if you're not paying attention to the soundtrack you could easily miss him: his voice was far more distinctive than his good looks at this stage of his career.

There is a happy ending, but it feels forced. That is the one flaw in this movie. Otherwise it is well worth your time.