Sinners' Holiday

In 1929, James Cagney and Joan Blondell (neither of them well-known at the time) played supporting roles in a Broadway drama called "Penny Arcade". Warner Brothers bought the film rights and brought Cagney and Blondell to Hollywood to repeat their stage roles in the screen version, retitled "Sinner's Holiday". This was the first movie for both of them. (Blondell's second film, a quickie, was released before "Sinner's Holiday", a more prestigious picture.) The actual star of this film is Grant Withers, playing a gangster who's made a lot of enemies and needs a place to hide before he gets rubbed out. Withers is pretty good, and he deserves to be better known. Cagney's role is much smaller, but he's absolutely electrifying. As soon as he steps on screen, there's no question that he's the best actor in this movie ... one of the best actors in the history of films, in fact.

Joan Blondell is boring in this film, as usual. Her appeal has always eluded me. At least in her other films she usually had something to do; here, she doesn't. There are good performances by Lucille LaVerne and Warren Hymer, in his usual typecast role as a dim gangster. Hank Mann, who was one of the original Keystone Cops (and who eventually outlived all the other Keystone Cops), is excellent here in a small role.

"Sinner's Holiday" suffers from the usual Warner Brothers complaint: low budget-itis. I saw the trailer for this film before I saw the movie itself. The trailer features a shot of amusement park rides in a funfair. This is obviously stock footage, but at least I expected the stock shot to turn up in the movie itself. Surprisingly, it doesn't. There's almost nothing on screen to convince you that this movie takes place in an amusement park. It looks like a stage play recorded on film, rather than a movie in its own right. Still, "Sinner's Holiday" has much to recommend it, and Cagney's performance alone is worth your time. I'll rate this movie 6 out of 10 points, or 7 if you're a Cagney fan. If you're a Joan Blondell fan, I don't want to know about it.

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.

A flop Broadway show, Penny Arcade, served as the vehicle for the joint debuts of James Cagney and Joan Blondell on the big screen. Both Cagney and Blondell repeat the roles they played on Broadway and both received a lot more notice than nominal stars Grant Withers and Evelyn Knapp.

Penny Arcade only ran for 24 performances on Broadway, no doubt the Depression played a part in closing it as it did many shows that season. Retitling it Sinner's Holiday, the film is about the Delano family who run an amusement concession in Coney Island. Lucille LaVerne is the tough minded mother and she's got daughter Knapp and sons Cagney and Ray Gallagher working for her. She's a tyrannical old woman, who's determined to see that none of her kids get into the illegal booze business for the quick money.

Unfortunately Cagney's involved up to his eyeballs with another concession owner, Warren Hymer, whose place is used as a front for the sale and transportation of illegal whiskey. Cagney and Hymer quarrel and Cagney shoots Hymer dead.

LaVerne is quite willing to see petty drifter Grant Withers take the fall for her son even though Knapp's falling for him. She holds out that Knapp can do better for herself, like this crowd of Carnies ever could.

Cagney's screen presence overawes the rest of the cast with the possible exception of Blondell who provides Cagney with an alibi for the shooting. You can easily tell who was heading for stardom in this bunch.

Grant Withers at the time was a promising leading man who was married around this time to Loretta Young, ever so briefly. He had a lot of substance abuse problems and faded gradually into supporting parts. John Ford used him occasionally as he got older and John Wayne always found work for him in several of his films. Cagney was still in support of Withers the following year in Other Men's Women, but in 1954 Withers had a supporting part as an outlaw leader in Cagney's western, Run For Cover. Withers committed suicide in 1959.

Sinner's Holiday is an entertaining enough film, but it really could have been a classic if Cagney had played Withers's role. William Wellman eventually remedied that in Public Enemy.

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.

On a Coney Island arcade, a corpse turns up.

John Adolfi's movie version has not aged particularly well. Likewise. Many of the performances do not stand up to 90 decades. While Evalyn Knapp, Jimmy Cagney and Joan Blondell (Jimmy and Joan had taken the same roles in the Broadway production) are fine in their roles, the whole seems an uneasy morality play and the other actors give stagey line readings. Cagney and Blondell are still working their way through, but their staginess seems to fit the characters and Jimmy's nervous energy delivers a punch.