Actores y pecadores

"Actor's and Sin" had heart and soul seeping from every corner, but what it lacked was that standard to bring it out of the "made-for-TV" category. While this film was a feature in its own right, it had a feel of simplicity that one could not shake. Shakespeare it was not, but this little film could have put more "humph" into its life and fought for a possible cult-classic nomination.

"Actor's and Sin" was very entertaining, and for the time of its release, it would have been a fun way to spend a rainy afternoon. It begins with a drama of sorts. Marsha Hunt plays an actress who is about to strike it rich on Broadway. As she follows the path of fame and fortune, the path becomes a crooked one with each performance suddenly bubbling with more villains. Eventually, she is found dead – possible suicide – one could guess all day until Daddy-dearest decides to play "Clue" and unmask the real killer. Entitled "Actor's Blood", this was the weaker of the two. It was heavy, dull, overly dramatic, and our characters seemed like they were lifted from Cracker Jack boxes than film school. While the cinematography was simple enough with decent lighting and impressive cut scenes, what brought this opener down was two parts, the first is the story and the second were the actors. "Actor's Blood" was a 43-minute short that could have been about 20-minutes shorter. Too many characters were introduced in such a short amount of time that not enough time was devoted to development. It was tough to follow some and to fully understand their roles in the climaxing moment. If "Actor's Blood" would have been a feature film, it still would have only had about 20-minutes of good meat, with the rest just fatty tissue. The actors were laughable at best. Edward G. Robinson loved his fatherly character so much that he decided to bore us with long monologues, pompous entrances, and a finale that cried melodrama. It was pointless and at times certain to be "MST3K-ed" by a group of college freshman. This opening film had everything we didn't want to begin with, but thankfully our desserts were enough to bring this film from horrid to mediocre.

The second part of "Actor's and Sin" is entitled "Woman of Sin", in which a slimy Hollywood agent unknowingly options a script for a 9-year old bratty girl (insert laughter here or loud "ZOING"). This second segment seemed to pull everything that went wrong with the first, transform it into greatness, and insert it back into the film. The characters were strong and had an honest humor to them, the concept was fun – albeit maybe dated – but fun, and the beats seemed to gel well with the length of this film. Eddie Albert played Orlando Higgins with so much pizazz and energy; it is hard to keep your eyes on anyone else but him during the short. Those with an infatuation with "The Flintstones" should watch "Woman of Sin" to see Alan Reed – Mr. Fred Flintstone himself – as well as hear him as the big shot executive caught in the shuffle. This is a great parody of Hollywood, which takes the dirtiness of Ari Gold from "Entourage" and brings him into a Preston Sturges-esquire film. Watch when you meet the child's mother for the first time, the entire scene is reminiscent of Lynch or Aronofsky, very surreal, very eerie, very dark – but it counters the tone of the film very well. Our young writer, Daisy Marcher (played by the director/producer's daughter Jenny) is very good at her performance. She is feisty, cruel, and exactly what you would not think of a young girl writing about a woman and sin. This second half was phenomenal. It brought together the zaniness of working in the film business with the sleaze of truth. It was funny and upbeat with pacing that made you wish it was another hour long. Nearly the direct opposite of "Actor's Blood", "Woman of Sin" pulls out as the obvious winner and my vote for viewing this film at least once.

Overall, this was a mediocre entry into the world of cinema. There was a level of annoyance with "Actor's Blood", with the wooden overly dramatic performances and the trite story that could have been shortened another twenty minutes. Yet, this film was saved by its second half. "Woman of Sin" reminded me of a Preston Sturges film, with the symbolism, energy, and audacity coming through every scene. It was (unlike the first) original and a definite suggestion to friends. Alas, I cannot suggest this entire film. It is a self-produced independent film that is a unique idea, but developed incorrectly. One could tell that there was more passion and enjoyment in the second half than the first – perhaps with a change of directors this happened, but there was no consistency or cohesiveness. For "Actor's and Sin" to work the two films had to connect at some level. It needed to be one film to the viewer, but two films on the VHS box. There was nothing to make these two short films fit together, thus they suffered by merely working solo, with an obvious lack in the front, and a bit too bottom heavy. I liked, but not loved. This film did raise itself above the one-star rating with its "Woman of Sin", but not too much further. Watch once, repeat viewings are not necessary.

Grade: *** out of *****

There were a lot of live television anthology series in the 1950s and both the episodes in this movie could have have been good episodes. Both lack movie quality production values and cinematography. The nice things is watching Edward G. Robinson, Marsha Hunt, Alan Reed (later voice of cartoon Fred Flintstone) and Eddie Albert doing some fine acting. Ben Hecht does not appear to be very good at directing, but the actors help him out by trying to punch up the material. The first half/episode is a mild "Who Done It" that satirizes the Broadway Theatre. It is no way in the ball park of "All About Eve" "The Saxon Charm," and "Sweet Smell of Success," but it draws some blood as a light murder mystery. The second half/episode "Lady of Sin" has Eddie Albert as a roguish Hollywood Agent and Alan Reed as a typically tyrannical movie studio boss. They both milk the comedy nicely. I had been reading Anita Loos' autobiography "A Girl Such As I," and she mentions that she turned Ben Hecht's first movie idea into a screenplay for Douglas Fairbanks. The plot revolves around a 9 year old writer who sells a script called "Lady of Sin" to a movie studio who think its quite sophisticated. Loos talks about how she wrote her first scripts when she was quite young (around 23 actually) and the people at Biograph Studios, thought that she was a sophisticated older woman. When four years later, when she met the studio heads for the first time, her mother accompanied her and they all thought her mother had written the scripts. At just 4'11," Loos still looked like a teenager. The studio heads, including D.W. Griffith were shocked and astonished when they realized it was the daughter and not the mother who had written the 100 plus scripts they had bought. Clearly, Ben Hecht, just exaggerates what happened with Anita Loos and D.W Griffith here. Ben Hecht's daughter actually does a fine job as the brat of a writer here, especially given that Hecht was not a great director. To sum up, two amusing stories, but with poor production values worth and bad direction, but worth watching for the good writing and good actors.

Firstly, there absolutely IS an apostrophe in the title of this film! The title is shown on screen as 'Actor's Blood and Woman of Sin' with the words 'Actor's', 'And' and 'Sin' in bold, while the other words are in grey; the title is therefore meant to be 'Actor's and Sin'. I agree that some posters and references miss out the apostrophe, but it's there in the film!

As regards the film itself, it is far from being alone as a portmanteau production, and the two parts are meant to complement each other. The first story - 'Actor's Blood' - is a melodramatic tale about the theatre which is very theatrically staged. The actors play it very straight. Edward G. Robinson, in particular, is very stilted and stagy in his performance; there again, he is playing a former 'ham' actor whose reviews said as much, so his take on the role is fitting. The story is no match for Conan Doyle, but is an entertaining enough whodunit with an implausible but acceptable twist at the end. Marsha Hunt and Dan O'Herlihy are reliable, as always. The second story, 'Woman of Sin' is a farcical skit on contemporary Hollywood. The plot doesn't bear analysis, but that's not the point. I found it funny and witty (not the same things!). Eddie Albert, Tracey Roberts and Alan Reed deliver fluent, satisfying performances which drive the narrative forward convincingly. Ben Hecht's daughter Jenny plays Daisy as a precocious yet amusingly infantile nine-year-old. She made me laugh, anyway, especially near the end when she is unseen, in the taxi, answering Higgins's orders with 'Check... check...'. The only weak link was Alan Mendez as Daisy's friend, Capt. Moriarty. He IS only a kid though! I enjoyed this film though I recognise it's no 'Citizen Kane'. There again, it wasn't trying to be.

The first half is a 43 minute film called Actor's Blood. Edward G. Robinson plays an older actor whose daughter is a current star but troubled. She dies at the start and the rest of the film is a who done it. This part is pretty good. The second film stars Eddie Albert and is a fairly silly story about a nine year old female author that writes adult love stories. This one is called Woman Of Sin.

In two short features released as one picture, written and directed by Ben Hecht. In the first, Marsha Hunt becomes a Broadway star to the great admiration of her father, Edward G. Robinson. She throws it all away in affairs and booze; her murder leads Robinson to assemble a cohort of possible assassins. In the second, agent Eddie Albert sells a script to mogul Alan Reed, who's convinced this is going to be the greatest picture Hollywood ever produced. When it turns out the author is nine-year-old Jenny Hecht (daughter of Ben), there's a lot of covering-up to do.

It's the last of seven movies that Hecht directed himself. He seemed to have gotten it into his head that Hollywood got everything wrong, and wished to make films with the writer having the final say, the way they did in the theater. There's something in that, but his attempts at doing serious movies wound up being pompous and not particularly popular; well, he got paid amazing sums of money for his writing by the people he despised.

That pompousness shows up in the first story. The second, a burlesque of the way Hollywood was doing business and thinking it art, is acidic and often very funny. Reed is hilarious in his mock humility, and Albert's businesslike demeanor with secretary Tracey Roberts until they suddenly start necking is also very funny. The first story is disappointing, but the second makes up for it.