Half a Sinner

A bored school teacher gets mixed up with the mob. She's decided to get out and see life, so she buys fancy clothes and drives off in a car the killers were using to dispose of a body. She meets a handsome stranger along the way, and they decide to return the car. After lunch, of course. All pretty unlikely, but if we just go along, it'll be an adventure. It's pretty silly. A 59 minute shortie B film from universal. From a story by dalton trumbo, whose life was turned upside down by the huac in the 1940s. Directed by al christie. This appears to be the last full length film he directed! The very last short christie directed was an odd little eleven minute bit with bob hope and friends called "bob's busy day". Apparently that was part of a larger film but has been sliced and diced into a tiny little short.

That opening scene with the impish little boy writing punishment sentences on the blackboard is a charming hoot. The whole time he's muttering he will NOT be a good boy despite what he's writing. Monitoring him, teacher Anne (Angel) looks dowdy, I guess like a school teacher's supposed to look. She's been leading a respectable but repressed life, content it appears with the romantic margins. Then, one day, she drops her homely eye-lasses and goes shopping-- new dresses, stylish hats, flattering cosmetics-- and the make-over is complete. The conversion from gray moth to striking butterfly is also complete. But does she know what comes with the good looks that catch a man's eye. From now on it's a pack of trouble.

Lively little madcap from Universal, thanks to the two leads, Angel and King. Their chemistry works as they try to outwit gang of crooks whose corpse-bearing car they've unfortunately stolen. Now both the crooks and cops are after them. Maybe Anne was better off making little boys write on blackboards. But then this is Hollywood and we know how such antics end, especially for such an attractive twosome. All in all, it's a fun way to spend an hour, maybe not Hepburn and Grant, but with their own B-movie brand of charm.

I'm sure this little comic piece was never meant to be taken seriously. It involves a snowball effect caused by a young schoolteacher out on a lark. She ends up with a car carrying a body and evidence against a crime boss. It's a series of escapes and puzzled cops, running back and forth, chasing the young woman and her wealthy handsome new acquaintance. The police are good hearted buffoons. The crooks are silly and pretty ineffectual. There are some narrow escapes, but no one ever seems to get all that flustered over the events. Reality takes a holiday in this one and that's OK. It's just so darned tongue in cheek and over the top that we never really feel much for the plight of the characters.

Prim and proper schoolteacher Anne Gladden (Heather Angel) is a paragon of virtue and discipline. One day, Anne realizes that she's 25 years old and fears she'll die a dull "old maid".

So, ditching her spectacles, Anne buys some flashy new clothes and sets out on an adventure. Within seconds, she gets mixed up with gangsters, auto theft, murder, and a police manhunt!

In the middle of all this, romance blooms between Anne and a man in need of a ride. It's too bad that Anne and her new boyfriend have no idea what they've been carrying around in the car's back seat!

The chase is on!

HALF A SINNER is a fast-moving, zany comedy full of wacky situations, kooky characters, and Snappy dialogue.

Highly entertaining...

Part film noir, part mystery, part thriller, part adventure and all comic romance, Half a Sinner is a 1940 charmer which is worth seeing.

Fred Jackson (screenwriter) and Al Christie (Director/Producer) teamed up in 1940 to bring a clever Dalton Trumbo story about a schoolteacher on the run to the screen. Both Jackson and Christie had been successfully making films since 1912 - including a great deal of B and B+ comedies such as 1937's Wells Fargo. Christie's experience shows in this well-directed and well-shot melange of genres, but unfortunately, Jackson appears to have had some difficulty working with Trumbo's material. At home in comedy, Jackson appears to have grafted most of the film's humorous elements onto characters Larry Cameron (John King) and Mrs Breckeridge (Constance Collier). Collier (Rope, The Perils of Penelope) is as superb as usual, but King is monotonous and awkward.

The plot, and Angel's charismatic performance and likable character are what make this film fun and worth a look.

Miss Gladden is a mid-twenties school teacher who fears becoming an old maid. Her solution to this is to go seek adventure in the local park. Doesn't sound promising, but her good looks attract the unwanted attention of a thug. Panicking, Miss Gladden (Angel) drives off in the thug's sedan - which, of course, had been previously stolen and has a body rolled up in a rug in the backseat. Miss Gladden is oblivious about all of this. Pursued doggedly by a motorcycle cop and some fairly inept gangsters, Miss Gladden eventually picks up a man (King) in the street who claims car trouble. Car trouble indeed. Noticing the body, Larry Cameron remarks that he is also in the game. What game? Well, that becomes the mystery which makes the movie worth watching so you won't get it out of me. Many viewers will figure it out about halfway through, and most will continue watching anyway just to see how the truth is eventually revealed.

Halfway a Sinner is a fun little romp. Suspension of disbelief is most definitely required - but it is facilitated by Heather Angel's superb performance, strong Trumbo storyline, and the good humor (not laugh-out- loud comedy) of the film.