O Pecado de Nora Moran

Zita Johann is 21 year old "nora", hiding some deep secret. she is wrapped up in a murder. she knows stuff, but she's not saying much. made in 1933, so even the posters for the film are pretty naughty. convicted of a murder, nora lets us see things through her flashbacks. she starts out in her jail cell, but now we're retracing the events. co-stars John Miljan as Paulino. she gets a job with the circus, and is happy until.. she is brutally attacked by the lion tamer. she leaves, and starts dating someone running for governor. more flashbacks. some twists and turns along the way. Directed by Phil Goldstone. he had produced many films, but only directed thirteen. original story by w.m. goodhue. Pretty good stuff!

Here is a decent film from Majestic Pictures from 1933. Zita Johann plays a girl in desperate circumstances who gets embroiled in a murder. The structure of this film is quite unique for it's genre. The direction by Phil Goldstone and the performances are excellent. Many offbeat touches are present and there is a decent music score, rare for a little poverty row production like this. Films like this make me appreciative of the little studios that put these out. This probably played small houses or the bottom half of a double bill. It really is well done and the brief running time (just over an hour) goes by pretty quickly. The print I saw running on YouTube was decent, with good picture and sound. The clever montages and effects really add to the enjoyment of this film.

The Sin of Nora Moran is a 1933 "talkie" picture. Why it's legendary has more to do with the camera effects used, the movie poster, and the use of flashbacks and talk-overs more than the actual plot of the film itself. That's the hard part to put yourself into in the 21st century. You can imagine all the oohs, and aahs, and confusion & shock of movie-goers in 1933, but after almost 90 years it's hard to feel that way yourself. The movie concerns itself with Nora, and the reason she is on death row awaiting execution. There are double and triple twists aplenty. Probably the most shocking thing in the film that I noticed was an implied rape. I can imagine how controversial this must have been back in the day, if I can tell what the implication was meant to be today. Another impressive feat of the movie is how well the story is told, despite all the time changes that happen during the course of the movie. At 65 minutes it doesn't lag at all, and it also serves to show how well an almost lost film can be brought back to life to breathe again on our small screens at home. Worth a watch to experience a revolution in '30's movie-making.

This film's not quite what you expect from 1933, the trailer boasts that it uses the famous 'narratage' technique from Preston Sturges's The Power and Glory, with Flashbacks and narration; then Flashbacks within Flashbacks. At just sixty five minutes the plot twists are great and the old fashioned dialog is really quite funny.

Made on a tight budget, it manages to look like a bigger movie using library footage and cleaver back projection. Overall well worth watching just for the novelty value.

Two viewings, the first on 9/3/2018 at the suggestion of YouTube. The initial experience was such that I revisited the film on the tenth. "The Sin of Nora Moran" is one of those not-quite-of-its time (or place) movies, with its use of layered flashbacks, contrasting first person narratives, and use of fantasy. In a little over an hour the movie delivers the narrative fullness expected from a much longer work. The contrasting stories, told in Rashomon-like fashion, deepen the reality of a paradoxically realistic (melo-)drama. A major artistic work, with techniques to be seen in "Citizen Kane" (1941), "Wild Strawberries" (1957) and even "Zentropa" (1991 - e.g., the two-scene featuring what appears to be a projected head of the heroine conversing with her governor-paramour). Apparently the film fared poorly with audiences at the time of its release. While its reputation has grown over the years, I must confess I had never heard of it before YouTube suggested it, and I'll guess that it remains unjustly obscure. If the film were from Europe it would probably be better regarded today, perhaps belonging on a double bill with Joe May's "Asphalt" (1929). This was one of many important cinematic discoveries I've made in the last few years on YouTube. I may see this again.