Stubs - They Call it Sin

 

They Call It Sin (1932) starring Loretta Young, George Brent, Una Merkel, David Manners Directed by Thornton Freeland. Screenplay by Lillie Hayward, Howard J. Green Based on the novel They Call It Sin by Alberta Stedman Eagan (New York, 1932). No Producer Credited. Run time: 68 minutes. Black and White. USA. Pre-Code, Drama.

If you’re ever looking for a film to watch, the old adage "you can’t judge a book by its cover" can come into play if you go simply by the title. Case in point, They Call It Sin from First National. I saw the title in the guide for TCM and saw that Loretta Young was the star. Young had been the lead of many racy pre-code films and the promise of one with this title was too much to pass up.

New York businessman Jimmy Decker (David Manners) is sent on a business trip by his boss Mr. Hollister (Joe Cawthorne), who is also the father of his fiancée Enid (Helen Vinson). There are two deals Jimmy is supposed to close; one in Merton, Kansas, and the other is on the West Coast. He’s told if he can’t close the Merton deal, he should continue to California and try Merton again on the return trip.

On Sunday, in Merton, there is really nothing for Jimmy to do, as the entire town, it seems, is in church. Trying to kill time, Jimmy walks into a drug store to get a soda. The female soda jerk (Marion Bryan) flirts with Jimmy, suggesting that he could rent a car and they could go for a drive after she gets off work.

Loretta Young is pretty as the innocent Marion Cullen when she first catches Jimmy's eye.

Jimmy isn’t interested and tells her he has work to do. With no place else to go, Jimmy hears the church service and goes in. His attention is immediately drawn to the organist, Marion Cullen (Lorreta Young), and he stays after the service to ask her out. She continues playing after everyone has gone, something she had written. Marion tells him she can’t go, but he manages to talk her in to sharing a coke with him back at the Drug Store, much to the chagrin of the soda jerk. She witnesses Jimmy ask Marion out on date, insisting that he could rent a car and take her for a drive.

Marion enjoys her soda.

She turns him down but lets him walk her home, or near home hoping her parent won’t see them together. Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Cullen (Erville Alderson and Elizabeth Patterson), aren’t happy that she didn’t come home right away and tell her so.

Jimmy hangs around for longer than he needs to before heading to the West Coast, all so he can flirt with Marion. He even makes a stop when he turns to Merton and keeps her out from noon until midnight before heading back to New York. That’s about all her parents can stand and her mother reveals that they are not her real parents, that they took her in when her unwed mother, a traveling showgirl, died.

This explains to Marion why she doesn’t fit in and she decides to follow Jimmy to New York. When she arrives, Jimmy is having drinks with his friend, Dr. Tony Travers (George Brent), before his fiancée and her family are due to arrive for dinner. It is only then that Marion discovers Jimmy is engaged.

With no place to go, Jimmy proposes putting her up in a nearby hotel and Tony takes her there. Meanwhile, Jimmy convinces Enid to help Marion with her music and she reluctantly agrees.

However, she arrives at Marion’s hotel the next day after Jimmy has and catches them together. The next day, Marion checks out of the hotel and disappears.

She ends up pounding the pavement, going to see agents and producers, hoping to land a job as a chorus girl. While waiting in producer Ford Humphries' (Louis Calhern) office, she meets Dixie Dare (Una Merkel), a confident dancer who, after everyone else has been dismissed, convinces Humphries to watch her dance and Marion agrees to play accompaniment. While Dixie is dancing, Humphries has eyes for Marion. And after Dixie finishes her run through, he offers Marion a job working a pianist during rehearsals and hires Dixie as well.

The film is at its best when Dixie Dare (Una Merkel) is on screen.

The two girls move in together, especially since Marion has no other place to go. They get along really well, with Dixie acting like an older sister, making sure Marion eats and trying to warn her about Humphries.

Ford Humphries (Louis Calhern) tries to woo Marion over dinner in his apartment.

 

During a break in rehearsals, Marion plays one of her own songs and Humphries suggests she write a song for one of his shows. To discuss the opportunity, he invites her up to his apartment for dinner. During dinner, he offers her the use of his apartment, under the guise of helping her write. Marion gently turns down Humphries' pass, but they continue to see each other.

One evening, they run into Tony in a club. Tony and Marion start to date, and when Jimmy returns from his honeymoon and discovers this, he becomes upset.

At a party, Humphries, Marion, Dr. Tony Travers (George Brent) and Jimmy Decker (David Manners).

He convinces Tony to take him to one of Humphries' parties. His plan is to tell Marion he still loves her. Marion admits that she still loves him. That’s when Humphries sees them kissing. He takes up with another woman almost right away.

The next day, he fires Marion. When she hears Dixie humming one of her songs, she tells him that Humphries is claiming he wrote it and that it’s part of the show she’s rehearsing for.

Marion confronts Humphries and Dixie backs her up. He has Marion thrown out and fires Dixie as well.

When Jimmy learns from Marion about Humphries’ deceit, he goes to see him. But Humphries doesn’t seem to care. Drunk, Humphries tries to get away, loses his balance and falls off his balcony. His injuries put him in a coma. Jimmy flees the scene. However, the police have his description from witnesses and suspect he committed a crime.

To save him, Marion goes to the police and insists that she pushed Humphries off the balcony. However, Tony is convinced she is lying and uses a risky procedure that takes hours to revive Humphries, just long enough to clear both Marion and Jimmy, admitting that he fell. He then dies from his injuries.

Jimmy give his blessing to Tony and Marion's engagement.

 

Marion is released by the police. Convinced that she loves Tony, she agrees to marry him. Jimmy wishes them the best.

The title of the film is much more salacious than the actual film. Judging from some of the reviews, They Call it Sin wasn’t that well received. Mordaunt Hall, writing for The New York Times, called the film “an unimportant offering” and pointed out that the story is “lacking in drama and therefore tedious.” These are not the type of reviews you want to see for your movie.

But I would have to agree with Hall’s assessment. The film doesn’t have that much going for it. Loretta Young is pretty to look at and does well with the role of Marion. You can see a real change in the character over time and in subtle ways. One obvious example, is that when she meets Dixie in Humphries’ waiting room, Dixie asks if she has a cigarette and Marion says she doesn’t smoke. Later in the film, when she’s at one of Humphries’ parties, we see her smoking.

That scene is only the first one that Una Merkel steals in the film. When Marion doesn’t have a cigarette, Dixie pulls one out of her purse and smokes it. She plays a dancer who appears to be more talk than dance. During rehearsals, she’s supposed to do cartwheels but instead just pretends to go through the motions. It gets to the point where Brad (Roscoe Karns), the choreographer, bets Humphries that she can’t really do one, only to see her perform several during a break.

The men are also good with their roles. David Manners, who had recently portrayed John Harker in Tod Browning's Dracula (1931). He is almost unrecognizable in a very different role. But somehow, he doesn’t really make Jimmy feel believable.

George Brent gets higher billing than the role would seem to justify. Jimmy has much more screentime than Tony gets. Brent is a competent actor, but the scene where he tries to bring Humphries back to life seems to push the envelope a little too far. It almost seems like needless torture to keep Humphries alive and the procedure seems like something dreamed up by a screenwriter rather than any real medical practice.

Louis Calhern is one of those actors who had a long career in films and played in comedies, dramas and even film noir. That said, I don’t think his role as Humphries was one that would be on his top twenty list of roles. He’s a bit stereotypical as the lecherous stage producer and his last scene is really embarrassing to watch.

You might get drawn into watching the film based on the title, but don’t be fooled. There is no sinning going on, along with not much of a story either. The only reason to watch the film would be Una Merkel. She is certainly the best part of the film and the best scenes are the ones she is in.