Sinners' Holiday

This is a must-see film which captures a specific time and place: the prohibition-era Atlantic City Boardwalk scene.

This movie was released in 1930 at the height of prohibition and the beginning of The Great Depression.

It is the first film teaming of Cagney and Blondell, lifelong friends.

They acted these roles in the theater before the rights were purchased by Al Jolson to sell the script to Warner Brothers.

The scenes showed would have been absolutely scandalous five years later when the code went into effect.

The acting is great from the top down.

Cagney is at his most raw and gripping.

Great story which truly depicts the period and place with a reality-based tone that is hard to find in pictures anymore.

Gotta love these old pre-code black and white films; there is a great scene where if the fair-goer hits the target, the girl sitting on a swing lifts up her dress for a little "show". This straight-forward no-surprises murder story takes place during prohibition , in a penny arcade, which was also the name of the play on which it is based. It stars Cagney in his very first performance in 1930, brought in from the original play; Also in a big role is Joan Blondell, who had already made four films, but would go on to make eight more films with Cagney, as well as over 150 films on her own. The top bills are Grant Withers and Evalyn Knapp, and Lucille Laverne, who had all started in silents. Also love the plain-talking mother who has an opinion on everything and everybody. John Adolfi, the director, had started as an actor in 1907, and worked mostly in silent films. This was one of his last movies as director. Due to its age, the sound and picture quality is a little iffy, but enjoy it as a fun, plain, simple story.

Middling Pre-Coder that's notable for being the film debuts of James Cagney and Joan Blondell (with her natural hair color, no less). The plot's about a family that runs a waterfront penny arcade and the trouble the youngest son (Cagney) gets into, including bootlegging and killing a guy. One for Cagney fans to check off their list but it's really not that great. The characters are all pretty unlikable and Jimmy shows little of that trademark charm & swagger in the role of a sniveling punk. Public Enemy would play to his strengths much better and, of course, make him a star. Lucille La Verne plays Cagney's mom and she hams it up in every scene. Grant Withers is pretty good as the ne'er-do-well turned good by the love of a woman. That woman being lovely Evalyn Knapp. She was my favorite part of the whole picture. The scene with her and Withers under the pier is probably the film's highlight. It's an early talkie so it creaks and groans but at least it doesn't seem like a filmed stage play, so points for that. Still, after it's over, you won't be in any hurry to tell your friends about it.

This is a fun movie. Great to see some true movie stars in their earliest roles.

But the movie suddenly ends. It's as if they realized they were down to their last reel of film and decided to jump ahead several pages to the final scene.

It's still worth seeing.

They just knew how to get down to business without wasting time in the early 1930s. In one hour flat this one has more plot and snappy dialogue and makes more sense than many films twice as long.

The film is set in a sleazy amusement park, mostly girlie shows, run by low-level grifters who tell the truth about anything only if it suits their purposes. Most are fairly innocuous but there are some hard cases ultimately leading to violence.

Although Grant Withers as drifter Angel Harrigan gets top billing, the central character is really elderly and unattractive Ma Delano (Lucille La Verne), who's in charge of the place. Though no more ethical than the others she at least tries to keep things under control while looking after her three grown children.

The eldest, Joe (Ray Gallagher in a small part) is a solid citizen but younger brother Harry (early James Cagney) is running around with hoodlums and virtuous but hot-to-trot daughter Jennie (Evalyn Knapp) wants to marry Harrigan over Ma's objections.

In a few years Cagney would be a big star while Withers' star would be fading. Whoever had the idea that in this film Withers should deliver his many wisecracks in a mock-effeminate voice did his career no favors. Cagney leaps out at you in his over-the-top hyperactive style that might have been annoying in a less talented actor but set the pace for leading men of the decade.

Knapp is fetching and convincing despite having to plow through occasional sappy dialogue. Warren Hymer is effective as a bad guy, as are Joan Blondell as Cagney's cynical girl friend and Purnell Pratt as a hard-boiled but sympathetic police detective.

Many similar films have a happy or unhappy ending that seems arbitrarily chosen but this one has a cynical finale that you won't see coming.