The Virtuous Sin

Director George Cukor gets his feet wet as a co-director with Louis Gasnier ( Reefer Madness) in The Virtuous Sin, a basically three person melodrama that manages to fail in nearly every department. Featuring an incredulous storyline and unconvincing performances it stumbles from scene to scene while Kay Francis models fur coats and frocks seducing a general (Walter Huston) in attempts to set her husband free from the brig.

Soldier, scientist Victor Sablin is on the verge of a medical breakthrough that will save millions but WW1 breaks out and Gen. Platoff (Walter Huston) prioritizes his killing enemy instead. Sablin balks and is tossed in the brig. His wife Marya (Francis) devises a plan to save him by working in a brothel that the General frequents on occasion. It works but unforeseen fallout accompanies.

All dressed up with no talent to show, Francis clumsily connives while maintaining naivete, her coquetry hackneyed. Huston is a cantankerous curmudgeon, loud and brash with zero romantic chops. As Marya's husband (eventually in real life as well) Ken McKenna overacts monstrously to every revelation while Jobyna Howland does a dull Mae West brothel madam. Compositionally the scenes are draped in typical Paramount gloss but come across limp much in part to the listless performance of the leads and uninspired direction of one man on the way up and one on the way down. Their conferences together probably showed more drama.

Kenneth MacDonald hates being in the Russian army. General Walter Huston thinks he should spend less time reading medical books and do army stuff, there being a war on and all. MacDonald virtuously tells him off, so Huston unreasonably orders him shot. This upsets MacDonald's wife, Kay Francis, who conceives the plan of masquerading as a good-time girl in the local bar, seducing Huston, and getting him to rescind his order as a favor.

In other words, it's nonsense, conceived of by people who know nothing of Russians, armies or Generals, but they knew to make sure that Miss Francis had a lot of clothing changes. For decades, this great beauty and excellent actress was denigrated as simply a clotheshorse. With vehicles like this, even opposite Huston, what was the poor women to do except learn her lines and negotiate a better salary?

Piffle like this, with a Russian background, was common in the late silent and early talkie eras. All those tales of impoverished royalty! All those cruel, tyrannous aristocrats! All those horrible Bolsheviks! And being Russian, of course, they had the greatest writers: Tolstoy, Gorky, Pushkin.

Actually the story is told by Robert Heinlein that his second wife, learned Russian specifically to read those great novels in the original language. According to him, she said they gained something in the translation.

Well, considering the source, maybe. At least Miss Francis looks great.

"The Virtuous Sin" is set during WWI in imperial Russia. A scientist working on some formula has just been drafted into the army. While he is right that working on his formula is more important than being in the army, Victor is an idiot. He's insubordinate and makes VERY bad choices. In the end, General Platoff (Walter Huston) is so infuriated at Victor that he orders him to be placed under arrest! Soon, he's sentenced to death for insubordination...something he really did seem to bring upon himself.

As for Victor's soon to be widow, Marya (Kay Francis), she learns what has happened and vows to help Victor. But her attempts to appeal the case are ignored so she comes up with another idea...to vamp the general and get him to do her bidding...even if that might mean sleeping with him to save her husband. What's next?

There were two problems with the story that kept it from being better. First, it felt very tough to feel sorry for Victor. He was an idiot and it's difficult to care about his plight. Second, the story is a bit old fashioned and stodgy...the sort that soon would go out of style. As far as Huston and Francis goes, they seemed to try hard to make it a good film but the script was schmaltzy and forgettable.

It's fun watching Kay Francis seduce Russian General Walter Huston in order to save real-life husband Kenneth MacKenna (a scientist) in this early talkie. MacKenna's life is at stake for insubordination (he'd rather cure people than kill them) -- Francis tries a ploy to get husband MacKenna pardoned. She becomes an entertainer at a local brothel (she even sings in her audition with Jobyna Howland). Francis gets real tough with Huston during his pursuit and interest in her. Her portrayal shows the complexity of her emotional conflict as she finds her self falling for the general while trying to hold on to the loyalty she feels for her husband. It's quite a performance and a multi-faceted opportunity that Francis plays to the hilt. Francis and Huston were a good team (4 films together) and it's too bad this one isn't more available to viewers.

"I think love is like a wave; if it comes on you unawares, nothing can stop it from sweeping over you."

1930 sure was a big year for putting the word "sin" in a movie title. Here the setting is WWI Russia, and we get both virtue and sin served up, with an emphasis on the former (unfortunately, ha!). Kay Francis plays a woman who marries a scientist with the agreement that they'll share their most intimate moments in the laboratory only, not the bedroom. He's working to cure a disease, she doesn't mind being his assistant, but then the war breaks out, and he's drafted. Wanting to continue on with his research, he soon runs afoul of an ill-tempered General the soldiers call "Iron Face" behind his back (Walter Huston), and is sent to prison. His wife hatches a plan to cozy up to the General in order to secure his freedom, hence the "virtuous sin," but doesn't count on falling in love.

The construction of the plot, with the chaste marriage and the honorable affair, has the weakness that it's geared towards making everyone involved a good person, feeling artificial as a result. (Obviously, forget any type of reality to this feeling like Russia, but that probably goes without saying). The clandestine meetings between Huston and Francis held promise and I suppose it was amusing seeing them see-sawing under the stars, but the film lacked sizzle and the film began to lag a bit in the middle. The resolution to the love triangle is not surprising, and not very satisfying either.

The film was most interesting when Francis's character was just beginning to immerse herself into a cabaret that officers attend to carouse with chorus girls. At first she's told by the man next door that it's "no place for a lady," motioning his hands over his chest as if he had breasts, which was priceless. There is a noticeable skip in the film shortly afterwards, suggesting that further dialog was cut, either by a local censorship board at the time, or by Joseph Breen & Co. After the Code was being enforced, upon it re-release. She then talks to the Madame of the club (Jobyna Howland), leading to this exchange:

"I want to - to buy your, your backgrounds." "Well, I have been told my back is rather fine."

Inside she finds women dancing around showing a lot of leg, and sitting in the laps of the officers. My favorite was the woman with a riding crop who sucks on the end of her cigarette seductively three times before having it lit (at 28:12, my goodness). Meanwhile, Kay Francis is adorned with her ornate headpiece, and looks fabulous, also briefly singing. The overall production quality is quite good too, as there are beautiful sets and outdoor scenery, and some pretty decent sound by the standards of 1930, background hiss notwithstanding. It fell short because of the story, but I thought it was worth seeing for its stars.