Sinners' Holiday (1930)

I love this movie so much

Sorry, this movie sucks

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Whenever "Flying Down to Rio" is mentioned, it is usually to talk about the first pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers - not about the actual stars, who were Dolores Del Rio and Gene Raymond. This movie is in the same boat. James Cagney and Joan Blondell were in the original Broadway play called "Penny Arcade" that only ran for 24 performances. It was bought to the screen with a snappier title "Sinner's Holiday" and Cagney and Blondell were bought to Hollywood to recreate their roles. Apparently both were signed at the insistence of Al Jolson, who had bought the rights to the play and was determined to have the pair in the movie. I agree with the reviewer that says Cagney acted like a veteran, it is so hard to believe this was his first film. The nominal stars were Grant Withers and Evalyn Knapp. In 1930 Withers looked a good bet for stardom, his career had taken off in 1928, in 1929 he was in 10 films, in 1930 8 films. The next year he was still the star to Cagney's co-star in "Other Men's Women" but then things went wrong and by 1932 he was on Poverty Row.The opening shots really establish the seedy atmosphere of carnival life - tired looking dancers, rowdy carnival barkers. Ma Delano (Lucille LaVerne) rules the Penny Arcade and her family with an iron will. She is determined to keep her kids away from the booze that was the ruin of her husband, a champion prize fighter. Unbeknownst to her , her favourite son Harry (James Cagney) is in it up to his neck. He and Mitch McKane (Warren Hymer) have a bootlegging business on the side. When Harry kills Mitch, Ma Delano is determined to get her favourite child off - even if it means pointing the finger at Angel (Grant Withers), a likable, itinerant roustabout, who has caught the eye of Jennie Delano. But Jenni is a witness to the crime and there is some tense acting at the end as alibis are smashed and the right man is finally caught.Even though the story is interesting it is very "talkie" - what action there is , is often stopped while characters talk about their dreams and aspirations - it becomes "gooey" at times. Cagney and Blondell are standouts in their roles with a really natural acting style. Seeing Joan Blondell in this, her first role, I am surprised she spent the next couple of years in "girlfriend" type roles. Myrtle was a good role with plenty of different emotions and she proved she was a natural for stardom. This was also Evalyn Knapp's first lead in a feature but she didn't exactly set the film world on fire. Noel Madison also made his film debut - his face is instantly recognisable in countless films, usually playing low life gangsters and henchmen but his stage career was different in that he played mostly sophisticated characters. He was one of the founding members of the Screen Actors Guild and his membership number was 5.Recommended.

Sinner's Holiday (1930) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Somewhat interesting drama about a small time crook (James Cagney) who kills a man in self defense but let's his sister's boyfriend (Grant Withers) take the blame. The most interesting aspect of this film is the fact that it was Cagney and Joan Blondell's screen debut. The film takes place inside Coney Island, which is another interesting thing to see. Other than that this early talkie is like many others of its day. There's way too much talking and none of it is very interesting. The direction is also pretty weak and there's just not too much life in the story. The relationship between Cagney and his mother played by Lucille LaVerne is also very strange in an incest type of way.

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.

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.