Fiesta de pecadores

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.

There are some top-notch performances here, particularly by Keenan Wynn as a has-been boxer. I can't help but think Robert DeNiro watched it as he was preparing for Raging Bull. I also especially enjoyed watching Janice Rule in an early role. Script-wise, the dialogue is pretty true to life, but the plot is not as fully developed as it had the potential to be. The lighting, set decor, and cinematography are all very respectable, and the film does a great job of capturing the look and feel of New Orleans. Mardi Gras attendees sure did dress nicer back then! Not a great movie, but definitely worth your time, especially if you love NOLA like I do.

Played against the festivities surrounding Mardi Gras, this drama highlights the frustrations of a doctor and priest respectively: the former because his dedicated work cannot relieve the pain and suffering that fill the world he knows; the latter because his idealistic intentions are victimized by the church's bureaucracy. Most notable in this film is an outstanding performance by Keenan Wynn as a punchdrunk former fighter, a childhood pal of the doctor and priest. Surely his finest performance, in a role that challenges him as no other had done, Wynn is heart-rending in developing a character who is trying, without success, to retain a last shred of dignity and sense of self-worth. What could easily have been over-played is handled with sensitivity and restraint. Keenan Wynn.....of all people!

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.

From a naturalistic Hamilton Basso novel, Days Before Lent, this is an adult melodrama about three childhood friends, a doctor, a priest, and a boxer,who develop in very different directions, but all leading to a dead end. The priest (Richard Anderson) wants to create a clinic for the poor but is frustrated by the church hierarchy, the doctor (Gig Young) wants to leave his hardscrabble practice and join a research team in India but discovers that he would have to leave his aristocratic fiancée (Janice Rule) back in New Orleans, and the battered boxer, a has-been who is going blind (Keenan Wynn), is merely trying to survive from drink to drink. The performances are more than merely competent, Keenan Wynn's in particular, but the delight is in the urbane and intelligent dialogue by Albert Bezzerides. The melodrama unfolds against Mardi Gras in New Orleans, but very little of what happens is peculiar to that unique city (even the breakfast pastries are called doughnuts rather than beignets).