Stubs - Sin Takes a Holiday

Sin Takes a Holiday (1930) Starring: Constance Bennett, Kenneth MacKenna, Basil Rathbone. Directed by Paul L. Stein. Screenplay by Horace Jackson. Produced by E. B. Derr. Runtime: 75 minutes Black and White. USA. Drama.

Constance Bennett was a star in Hollywood best known for her fashionable wardrobe and her ability to wear it stylishly. Apparently, Depression-era audiences would flock to see her wearing fashions and living in a world that only existed on the screen. Viewers of Sin Takes a Holiday would not be disappointed.

Stubs - Her Man

Her Man (1930) Starring Helen Twelvetrees, Marjorie Rambeau, Ricardo Cortez, Phillips Holmes. Directed by Tay Garnett. Screenplay by Thomas Buckingham. Produced by E. B. Derr. Run time: 83 minutes. USA Black and White. Romance, Drama, Pre-Code.

It is sad to consider how many films have been lost over time. Sometimes, when you look up some older actors on Wikipedia, there are usually one or two films from the silent era or early sound that will be listed as a Lost film. Either because they were made and stored on highly flammable nitrate film, or through plain neglect or because the negative was destroyed in the name of censorship (Convention City), a survey of American films will often times have holes that cannot be filled.

Stubs - Hell's Angels

Hell’s Angels (1930) Starring: Ben Lyon, James Hall, Jean Harlow Directed by Howard Hughes with James Whale (uncredited) and Edmund Goulding (uncredited). Screenplay by Harry Behn, Howard Estabrook, and Joseph Moncure March (uncredited) Produced by Howard Hughes. Run Time 131 minutes USA Black and White w/ Color inserts. War. Melodrama

One of the first casualties of the coming of sound may be actress Greta Nissen, a Norwegian actress who had appeared in several Hollywood silent films. Originally hired to play Helen, the female lead of Howard Hughes’ big-budget production, Hell’s Angels. The critically acclaimed actress was with the production from its inception on October 31, 1927 and was involved until Hughes decided to get onboard the coming of sound and scrapped much of the film he’d already shot. While accents are not issues with silent films, they are with sound and Nissen’s was too noticeable for a film that up to that point was the most expensive film production to date.

Howard Robard Hughes Jr. was a lanky millionaire from Texas, who came to Hollywood after dropping out of Rice University. While Hughes’ fortune was inherited, his father’s Hughes Tool Company, he wanted to make his first splash in Hollywood. The first two films he produced, Everybody's Acting (1927) and Two Arabian Knights (1928), were financial and critical successes, the latter receiving the Academy Award for Best Director. His films The Racket (1928) and The Front Page (1931) were also nominated for Academy Awards for Best Picture, the latter also receiving nominations for Best Director and Best Actor.

The idea to film a World War I aviation picture was first suggested to Hughes by Marshall Neilan, an actor, director, producer, and writer, in the fall of 1926. The film was set to star Ben Lyon, James Hall, and Greta Nissen.

Ben Lyon had been in films since 1918 after finding success on the Broadway stage opposite Jeanne Eagels. He would develop into a leading man starring opposite such renowned silent era actresses as Pola Negri, Gloria Swanson, Colleen Moore, Barbara La Marr, Viola Dana, Anna Q. Nilsson, Mary Astor and Blanche Sweet.

James Hall hailed from Dallas, Texas and had been acting in films since 1923’s Man Alone. His sound debut had come in The Canary Murder Case (1929), opposite William Powell and Louise Brooks.

Neilan would be the film’s first director when production began at Metropolitan Studio. But Neilan didn’t last long and left the production because of Hughes’ overbearing techniques.

Luther Reed, a director from Paramount, was the next to take the helm, but he didn’t last long either, quitting in January 1928 again because of Hughes’ annoying interference.

After Reed’s departure, Hughes decided to direct the film himself, taking special interest in the air sequences of the film. For the film, he personally acquired forty warplanes, many authentic fighters from World War I. Over the next three years, the production was plagued by a number of fatal and near-fatal accidents. In three separate air tragedies, two pilots and one assistant were killed.

When finished, the silent version of Hell’s Angels was previewed in March 1929 and did not fare well. At the urging of co- but uncredited director James Whale, Hughes scrapped the entire film and reshot it as a sound picture. The rewrite fell to MGM’s Joseph Moncure March, who thought that the original silent film was "depressingly bad."

Shooting began again in September 1929 without a female lead. Hughes auditioned many women as a replacement for Greta Nissen including June Collyer, Ann Harding, Carole Lombard (then known as Carol Peters) and Dorothy Mackaill. It was Lyon who introduced Hughes to Jean Harlow after picking out the 18-year-old actress out of a chorus line performing on a nearby sound stage.

Whale, who was new to Hollywood, would work closely with Harlow, even shutting down production for three days so that he could get the performance out of her that he wanted. Whale, who would not receive credit on the final film, handled dialogue scenes while Hughes would concentrate on the aerial scenes and dogfights.

The final scene of the film was shot on December 7, 1929, and involved 1700 extras. The entire production involved 20,000 extras and a total of 2,254,760 feet of film (about 560 hours) that were shot and developed, the largest amount of negative discarded for a single film.

The film begins with three Oxford students vacationing together in Munich, Germany; Roy Rutledge (James Hall), his brother Monte (Ben Lyon) and their German-born classmate Karl Arnstedt (John Darrow).

Roy and Karl are waiting in a beer garden for Monte, who arrives with a woman clinging to him. Unlike his brother, Roy has already found love with Helen (Jean Harlow) and has no interest in other women. Monte begs his brother and Karl to take the woman off his hands, as he has another engagement to attend to.

Roy shows Karl a photo of Helen (Jean Harlow), the woman he loves.

His other engagement is with a married woman, the Baroness von Krantz (Jane Winton), who thinks her husband, Baron von Krantz (Lucien Prival), is out on military business, but he arrives home early and catches the two lovers. The Baron does not get angry, but rather challenges Monte to a duel.

Baron von Krantz (Lucien Prival) challenges Monte (Ben Lyon) to a
duel when he catches him with his wife (Jane Winton).

Monte’s first reaction is to run and he is packing his bags when Roy comes back to the hotel. Monte doesn’t tell Roy why he’s leaving in such a hurry and is gone by the time the Baron’s seconds arrive to make final arrangements for the duel. Roy upholds his brother’s honor by taking his place in the duel.

In a tinted color scene, we see the duel from a distance as the Baron shoots but only wounds Roy.

The Baron shoots Roy (James Hall), unaware he's not the man he challenged.

Back at school, there is talk of war. Karl speaks openly about not wanting to fight against the British. Meanwhile, Roy takes Monte to meet his girl, Helen, but when they get to her house, she’s out and Monte doesn’t have the patience to wait to meet her. Roy though stays, what seems to be hours, to see her.

Roy takes Monte to meet Helen, only to find out that she's out.

When war does break out, Karl is called back to Germany and Roy enlists with the Royal Fighting Corps. Monte, who seems to have a cowardly streak, wants nothing to do with it, but ends up enlisting accidentally in order to get a kiss from a pretty girl being used to lure men to enlist.

Roy, who is anxious for Monte to meet Helen, finally gets his wish at a Charity Ball given by Lady Randolph (Evelyn Hall) which he also helped organize.

Helen is obviously taken with Monte when they're introduced by Roy.

Helen is obviously taken with Monte and uses her considerable charms on him. Roy keeps getting called away, which allows Helen more opportunity to snare Monte. She asks him to take her home and while there slips out of her slinky dress into something more comfortable, a loose-fitting dressing gown. Monte thinks twice but, in the end, can’t resist her.

Helen makes her play for Monte.

The Germans mount an attack on London using one of their Zeppelins, whose commander (Carl von Haartman) uses Karl as the spotter. Not wanting to see London destroyed, Karl leads them to an unpopulated lake area which he convinces his commander is right about Trafalgar Square. The Zeppelin unloads all of its missiles, which explode harmlessly in the lake below.

German-born classmate Karl Arnstedt (John Darrow) is used as the spotter for the
attack, but feeds his commander bad information to save London.

The British are not too unaware and send up several planes, including one with both Rutledge brothers flying it. The Zeppelin tries to outrun their pursuers and when they are not getting the speed and height their commander wants, they start to get rid of excess weight, starting with Karl, whose observation gondola is thought to be slowing them down and would take too long to retrieve.

Karl is the first to be sacrificed in an effort to save the zeppelin.

When they are still too heavy, all excess equipment is thrown overboard. And when they need to go even lighter, men volunteer to jump to their deaths in order to keep the zeppelin from falling into enemy hands.

German soldiers jump to their deaths to keep the Zeppelin from being shot down.

While the Rutledge brothers are shot down, Roy manages to land the plane. They have a view of the Zeppelin which is struck down when one of the British fighters crashes into it. The Rutledges narrowly escape harm when the burning wreckage falls to Earth on top of their stranded plane.

The Zeppelin gets struck by a plane and catches fire before falling to Earth.

The brothers are sent to France, where Helen is also working in Lady Randolph's Canteen. Roy goes to see her there and she is openly flirting with another man.

Back at their base, Monte pretends to be ill to get out of Night Patrol, a duty that always seems to cost someone their life. Monte wants nothing to do with the war and openly says so in front of the other pilots in the mess hall.

Somewhat surprisingly when superiors are looking for two volunteers for a dangerous mission behind enemy lines, Monte is the first to volunteer. Not wanting to let his brother go on alone, Roy also volunteers. The mission is to fly a captured German bomber over the enemy’s munitions dump. The goal is to fly the plane back but in event of being shot down, they are to destroy the plane. And, if they are captured, they will be shot as spies since they will be pretending to be German pilots rather than enemy combatants.

The brothers find Helen in a backroom with another man.

On their last night, the boys are given freedom to do whatever they want. Roy wants to see Helen but when he gets to the canteen he’s told that she’s out. He leaves her a note and then joins Monte when they go to a nearby café. There, in the back room, they see Helen with another man. They are both drunk and affectionate. When Roy tries to get the other man to leave, Helen informs him that she’s never loved him and tells him to get out.

Helen tells Roy that she never loved him and to get out.

The brothers retreat to a bar across the street where they get drunk with two French girls. Monte tries to encourage Roy to forget about Helen. The brothers keep drinking and the closer it gets to their time to report, the more Monte talks about not wanting to go. But Roy won’t hear of it and drags his brother away and back to base.

While Roy flies, Monte lines up the bombs.

While the mission is initially successful, their bombing is witnessed by Von Richter (William von Brinken), who is commanding his Flying Circus. They attack the bomber which is trying to outrun them. The plane is hit by machine gun fire but continues to fly. Finally, a contingency of British fighters appear and take on the Germans. A large-scale dogfight takes place in which both sides lose planes. But when it looks like the Rutledge brothers might get away, Von Richter sweeps down and shoots the bomber down.

British fighters come to the Rutledges' rescue.

The plane crashes and burns but the Rutledge brothers survive. They are taken to a military prison run by Baron von Krantz, who recognizes Monte but not Roy. Despite their duel, the two never actually met. Von Krantz is interested in the position of the British troops and airplanes. If the boys cooperate, von Krantz promises them they will be sent to a POW camp near Munich where they can wait out the war in relative comfort. If they don’t it is the firing squad that awaits them. He gives them fifteen minutes to discuss.

The brothers are captured and taken to see General von Krantz.

It should come as no surprise that Monte wants to talk, but Roy talks him into letting him speak with von Krantz. Roy doesn’t reveal that the two men are brothers and instead tells von Krantz that they are rivals for the same girl. He says he’ll talk if von Krantz lets him kill the other pilot, a request the General agrees to.

Roy lies to von Krantz about his relationship with Monte.

Monte is all too willing to talk to spare himself. Seeing no other alternative, Roy shoots and kills his brother with the one bullet the General gave him. After watching his brother die, Roy is taken back to the General, who is surprised to learn the men were brothers. Roy refuses to talk and is taken away to be executed before a firing squad.

Roy stays with Monte while he dies.

The brothers' sacrifice is not in vain, however, for their brigade's attack on the Germans is a complete success.

The total budget of the film was reportedly $4 million, per Hughes, but in truth was closer to $2.8 million. Still a lot of money in its day, but far less than the $4 million M-G-M spent on Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925). Hell’s Angels premiered on May 27, 1930, with a huge fanfare at Grauman’s Chinese Theater but wasn’t released to the public until November 15, 1930. The film was a box-office success, making nearly $2.5 million in rentals. However, considering it took in less than it cost to make, it lost money for its wealthy producer.

Hells Angel's premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theater.

While the film has some spectacular scenes, they aren’t necessarily as involving as say similar scenes in Wings (1927) were. In Wings, the actors actually flew the planes they were in. That is not the case here. The dogfights, while enormous, are for the most part not all that exciting. Too many long shots of small planes against enormous cloud formations.

Impressive but involving dogfights.

There are some really interesting shots in the film, like seeing a Zeppelin falling down with the camera underneath it. And the pyrotechnics, no doubt real explosions, are spectacular as well. But for a war film, there is relatively little war footage. Hell’s Angels is, after all, more melodrama than action.

Fairly impressive pyrotechnics.

The film has remnants of its silent roots, including the use of tinted scenes, like the violet hues used during the early morning duel scene or the use of blue tints during obvious nighttime shots. There is actually a color sequence in the film. The party where Helen falls in love with Monte was shot in a two-strip process called Multicolor, though the actual sequence was printed by Technicolor. (Multicolor was not prepared to print the number of inserts needed for the wide release Hughes wanted.) This would turn out to be the only time Jean Harlow would ever be seen in color in a film that wasn’t colorized.

Hell's Angels is the only film to feature Jean Harlow in color.

It should also be remembered that this is a pre-code film, meaning there is some fairly frank sexuality, and a surprising amount of adult language (for the time). During the final dogfight sequence, you can hear such phrases as "son of a bitch", "goddamn it", and "for Christ's sake", along with the words "ass", "hell", and a few uses of "God" in other scenes. These were not common on the screen then and would not become a staple of films until the MPAA Rating system was adopted in 1968 and films could be rated according to the language used.

Despite the setting, the story itself is sort of mundane. None of the actors, including Harlow, really burn up the screen with their acting prowess or develop beyond being one-dimensional characters. Harlow was in fact, called out by New York Times critic, Mourdant Hall. In his review, Hall says that while the overall film is “absorbing and exciting. But while she is the center of attraction, the picture is a most mediocre piece of work."

Jean Harlow at the beginning of her career still exudes sex appeal.

That criticism is a little harsh. I don’t think her shortcomings as a leading lady in Hell’s Angels is really her fault, so to speak. This was, after all, her first major role. She’s only 18 with very little experience acting. It’s not her fault that she might have been thrust into the limelight before she was ready just because she’s pretty. Despite the critical reviews, Harlow became a star based on the film. She does exude sex, especially when wearing her barely-there gown at the party. She has the same platinum blonde hair that would help make her a star at MGM, though her eyebrows would be thinner than they are here. While her acting was oftentimes a little stiff, that would not keep her from becoming an icon in American culture, even though she died when she was only 26.

Her impact is somewhat reflected in the story of Ben Lyons, her co-star and the man who discovered her. While he received generally positive reviews for his performance as Monte, his career began to wane and he went to work on the business-side at 20^th Century Fox in the mid-1940s. On July 17, 1946, he met a young aspiring actress named Norma Jeane Dougherty. After their first meeting, he stated that she was "Jean Harlow all over again!”.  He organized a color screen test for her, renamed her, and finally signed her as Marilyn Monroe to her first studio contract. Talk about a man with a good eye for beauty, as he discovered arguably the two most iconic actresses in Hollywood history.

James Hall’s career in films ended in 1932, with Manhattan Tower, when he went to work in vaudeville. By the time of his death in 1940 at the age of 39, he had basically fallen into obscurity. Hall is part of one of the most powerful scenes in the film. Roy feels that for the greater good of the war effort he has to kill his own brother. No doubt Monte would have done just about anything to save his life and Roy finds it in himself to kill the brother he’s been looking after and cleaning up after his whole life.

Even though he has a relatively small part, Lucien Prival’s appearance as Baron von Krantz provides bookends for the film. It is a nice touch to have the husband of Monte’s lover be the one who gets to decide his and Roy’s future. Even though he’s not in this film, Prival’s performance as von Krantz predates how many Nazis would be depicted in World War II films.

While I prefer Wings, I am glad to have finally seen Hell’s Angels and would recommend it to anyone interested in early sound films or anyone who is a fan of World War I themed films. Though flawed there is still a lot to like and there are some spectacular shots. To top it off, you get to see a young and still learning Jean Harlow.

Stubs – Up The River

Up The River (1930) Starring: Spencer Tracy, Claire Luce, Warren Hymer, Humphrey Bogart, Williams Collier Sr., Joan Lawes. Directed by John Ford. Screenplay by Maurine Watkins. Presented by William Fox. Run time 90 min. USA. Comedy, Drama, Crime

I recently received the Ford at Fox boxset as a Christmas present. 24 films on 21 discs including many of the great film director’s early classics, including two versions of the silent western The Iron Horse (1924), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941) and My Darling Clementine (1946), just to name a few. Of all those films, the first one I wanted to watch was a little known film called Up The River (1930).

My reason was mostly personal. I’m a big fan of Humphrey Bogart and this is the first feature in which he received credit. It is also the first credited film for another Hollywood heavyweight, Spencer Tracy. Add to that, this is the only film in which these two actors would appear in together over their long careers. Bogart wouldn’t come back to Hollywood in a big way until Petrified Forest (1936) and spent most of his career at Warner Bros. and Columbia Pictures. Tracy would be offered a long term contract right after the film and would make films at Fox (1930-1935) and MGM (1935-1955) before going independent for the remainder of his career. 

Like Bogart, Tracy had been on Broadway prior to making it in Hollywood. His first success had been in a George M. Cohan play, Yellow (1926). Even though the play received mixed reviews, Cohan liked Tracy and wrote a part specifically for him in his next play, The Baby Cyclone (1927) that proved to be a hit. Tracy continued the success with another Cohan play, Whispering Friends. He also replaced Clark Gable in the play Conflict before being scouted by Hollywood.

The coming of the talkies, as they were called then, led Hollywood to look to Broadway for potential stars. Some found fortune right away, like Tracy and some would have off and on flirtations before finding success, like Bogart. Others, like Claire Luce, who is also making her film debut here, would never really catch on in films.

Luce had been on Broadway since 1923 and returned there after making this film and worked with Fred Astaire on the original musical version of Gay Divorcee (1932). In his review of the musical, New York Times theater critic Brooks Atkinson noted "In the refulgent Claire Luce, Fred Astaire has found a partner who can match him step for step and who flies over the furniture in his company without missing a beat."  Astaire also found inspiration in Luce when choreographing the “Night and Day” dance routine. In his autobiography, Astaire wrote about Luce: "Claire was a beautiful dancer and it was her style that suggested to me the whole pattern of the "Night and Day" dance. This was something entirely different from anything Adele (his sister and dance partner) and I had done together. That was what I wanted, an entirely new dancing approach."

In fact, Astaire wanted her for the film version of the musical, but the studio, RKO, wanted another actress they had under contract, Ginger Rogers. Sadly, Luce’s musical career would come to an end during the London run of Gay Divorcee when she suffered a serious injury, damaging her hip in a fall during the table dance sequence.

Up The River is a Comedy Drama, it says so in the opening credits.

The film starts with a prison break, Saint Louis (Spencer Tracy) and Dannemora Dan (Warren Hymer) have escaped and come up to the getaway car. Saint Louis knows, what we will later learn, that Dan is a moron, so he takes the first opportunity to dump him, having him get out of the car to change a non-existent flat tire and then driving off and leaving him stranded.

Saint Louis (Spencer Tracy) and Dannemora Dan (Warren Hymer) make their prison escape.

Later, they have a chance encounter. Dan has found religion with the Brotherhood of Man, a Salvation Army-style group, and relates his story to a small crowd that gathers, attracted by the sound of the group’s marching band. At that moment, Saint pulls up in a nice car with two women. He walks up close and watches his ex-partner fumble his way through his speech. Saint Louis shouldn’t be surprised when Dan pops him one.

 Dan testifies about finding religion while Saint Louis looks on.

No surprise, but both men end up back in prison. Dan is already there when Saint Louis arrives with some fanfare. It happens to be the same day that a new crop of women prisoners are being received. Amongst them is Judy Fields (Claire Luce), who is being registered by Steve Jordan (Humphrey Bogart). While Judy thinks Steve is an employee, he is, in fact, a prisoner like her, but only days away from parole.

Steve Jordan (Humphrey Bogart) is a prison trustee smitten when he registers Judy.

There is an instant attraction between them and they relate to each other their stories. Judy, who is 21, was arrested for fraud, telling fortunes, but pointing victims to her partner, Frosby (Morgan Wallace), who sold them worthless stocks. Steve had been on his way to work in China, when he was arrested. (Problems with missing frames makes following some of the dialogue and storyline difficult to follow.) His family, in fact, thinks that he is in China and does not know of his imprisonment.

Saint Louis is a bit of a celebrity prisoner and wants to be treated like that, asking for a cell up high, with southern exposure and lots of sunlight, but the Warden (Robert Emmett O'Connor) will have none of that, and puts him in the regular population, in the same cell as Steve and two other men, Pop (William Collier Sr.), a baseball-obsessed old convict, and his old partner, Dan, who is not happy with the reunion.

Saint Louis makes a hero's entrance, but notices Judy (Claire Luce) as well.

Judy is assigned to tutor the Warden’s daughter, Jean (Joan Lawes), while Steve tries to communicate with her any way he can. One way is to pass notes in the hem of Mrs. Massey’s (Louise Mackintosh) dress. Mrs. Massey is a well-to-do social worker who cares for the prisoners, especially the men, the same way a mother treats a child. The prisoners, both men and women, pretend to appreciate her help.

Mrs. Massey (Louise Mackintosh), a social worker, gets
played by one of the prisoners she's trying to help.

Direct communication between the male and female inmates is forbidden, though they try to hide it by having conversations at common fences while facing away from one another. Steve and Judy have one such talk when he tells her that he’ll wait for her and wants her to join him back in New England.

Steve tells Judy that he'll wait for her to get out of prison.

Meanwhile, Frosby, who has learned from Judy that she wants to be with Steve and not with him, follows Steve back to New England. He asks the preacher to introduce him to the Jordans, including Steve, his mother (Edythe Chapman) and his sister Cynthia (Althea Henley). When he tells everyone that he and Steve have a mutual friend, Judy, Steve is naturally alarmed, but can’t stop his mother from inviting Frosby to dinner.

Steve pulls Frosby aside and is told that unless he helps him in a swindle, Frosby will tell his mother about his incarceration.

Back in prison, word gets back to Judy about Frosby’s plans. She tells Saint Louis, who promises her that he’ll take care of it. Using the annual prison talent show, sponsored by Mrs. Massey, Saint Louis and Dan make their escape, turning off the lights and dressing in drag.

Saint Louis learns from Judy that Frosby is blackmailing Steve.

They show up in Steve’s hometown, just as Steve is confronting Frosby, threatening him if he tries to swindle his mother. Steve brings Saint Louis and Dan home to meet his mother and sister and mother invites them to dinner. After dinner, a couple of local girls come over and invite all the men to accompany them on a hayride and they all go.

Steve introduces Saint Louis and Dan to his mother (Edythe Chapman) and his
 sister Cynthia (Althea Henley) when the escapees show up at his house.

Upon their return, they find that Frosby is just leaving Steve’s house. When he asks his mother, she informs him that she’s made an investment that she’s sure will set Steve and his sister up for life. The payment she made to Frosby was in negotiable Bonds.

Steve gets a gun and is about to confront Frosby when Saint Louis stops him. He tells him that he and Dan will take care of it for him. The two then break into Frosby’s office and take back the bonds. (Again, the bad print deletes some of the action at this point.) Frosby sees the two carrying his satchel and goes to his office and presumably finds that the bonds are gone.

Saint Louis convinces Steve to let him and Dan take care of Frosby.

After they deliver the bonds back to Steve, they inform him that they’re going back. Steve gives them some lines of poetry he copied to give to Judy, but on the train ride back, they lose it out the open door of the freight train they’re on.

Saint Louis and Dan on the frieght train back to prison.

They arrive back at the prison just in time to see Judy leaving on her parole. She’s still not sure that Steve is really serious about her and Saint Louis manages to convince her that he is.

Judy gets out on parole. We assume she goes to New England to be with Steve.

The two escapees are then allowed to play in an Inter-prison baseball game. Saint Louis is the pitcher and with the game already in progress, the home team is already down. Even the warden knows to delay punishment until after the game.

Saint Louis and Dan arrive back in prison in time to play in the big baseball game.

The film ends there with a lot of things left up in the air, but which we’ll have to assume work out in the end. Assuredly, Judy goes to New England, she marries Steve and they live happily ever after.

There are a lot of head scratchers about the story, including the co-ed prison that is necessary for the story. How else could Steve fall in love with Judy unless that was the situation? I don’t know a lot about the prison system in the U.S., but I’ve never seen a movie like this that had men and women sharing the same prison. This seems like a pure plot invention.

Also, in the closing baseball game, there is a real zebra that is presumably the team’s mascot. Zebras were, and still are, exotic animals and the thought that a prison in the Midwest would actually have a live one on hand is a little hard to believe. The only reason would be for comedic effect.

But the topper for me is that the warden’s daughter, who has to be all of seven or eight, is allowed to walk by herself down on the men’s yard and interact with the prisoners. No matter when the film was made, that seems like a very dangerous idea. (The actress who played Jean, Joan Marie Lawes, was in fact the daughter of Warden L. Lawes, who was at the time the warden at Sing Sing prison, so maybe there was some truth in this portrayal.)

For the little bit of plot, we’re treated to a lot of filler, including some fairly complete acts at the prison talent show. There is even a minstrel segment of two men in blackface telling jokes and playing homemade instruments.

           

The acting overall isn’t bad, but there isn’t much more than stereotypes here. Saint Louis, as played by Tracy, seems like a pretty fleshed out character, but his motives seem a little specious at times, especially escaping to help out a friend like he does. In real life, prisoners don’t go back willingly to prison, the way Saint Louis and Dan do.

What little laughs there are in the film are supplied by Warren Hymer, who plays Dan, who is tested to be a moron. One of the better moments is when Dan is ripping up a piece of paper and ends up with a very intricate lacey doily looking piece when he’s done. Hymer was near the beginning of a career in which he would appear in 129 films, including Sinners’ Holiday (1930), Kid Millions (1934), San Francisco (1936), You Only Live Once (1937) and Meet John Doe (1941).

Dan rips up a piece of paper into a fancy doily. The other prisoner, Pop (William Collier Sr.) looks unamused.

Steve, Bogart’s character, also seems pretty three dimensional. In retrospect, the fact that he’s playing a prisoner seems to be right down his alley. Bogart played a lot of petty criminals throughout his early career. But for the most part, he plays Steve rather restrained, which is not something Bogart’s criminal characters were known for. But despite how we think of Bogart on film, he had a lot of experience on stage playing milquetoast men or what he called "White Pants Willie" roles. Steve, in some ways, straddles the two types of roles, a criminal, but still a mother’s boy.

I like Claire Luce as Judy. It’s too bad that she never caught on in films the way the others did. Maybe if Astaire had been able to convince RKO to use her in the film version of The Gay Divorcee, she may have had the sort of career Ginger Rogers did. She seems capable of much more than we get to see in Up The River.

Most of the actors are uncredited in this film, but it’s interesting to see a young Ward Bond in only his seventh film. He plays a bully prisoner who Saint Louis knocks out when he doesn’t like him picking on a young recent arrived inmate.

Even though the film was directed by Ford, it really could have been directed by anyone. I’ve read that Ford turned what had been a drama script into a comedy, but it’s really not a laugh out loud comedy, unless of course, the best lines had been spliced out of the film.

And that is the worst thing about the movie, its presentation. While Fox used the best available sources for the print, they didn’t seem to really try to restore the film in any way at all. There are far too many jump cuts. One has to imagine that the studio could have done better by one of its own releases. They are really doing the film, the director and the actors a disservice by not at least cleaning the film up before selling it.

This is not a bad film, but it is not really worth seeking out, especially in its current state. The only reason anyone would want to see it would be for Tracy and Bogart. Both actors will get much better and have better roles before their careers end. But if you’re a fan of one or both of these actors, like I am, then you might want to see how it all started for them. That’s really the only reason I wanted to see this film in the first place.

Stubs – Sinners’ Holiday

Sinners’ Holiday (1930) Starring: Grant Withers, Evalyn Knapp, James Cagney, Lucille La Verne, Joan Blondell. Directed by John G. Adolfi. Screenplay by George Rosener, Harvey F. Thew. Based on the play Penny Arcade by Marie Baumer (New York, 10 Mar 1930). No Producer Credited.  Run Time: 59 minutes. U.S. Black and White. Melodrama, Crime, Romance.

On March 10, 1930, an original play opened on Broadway called Penny Arcade. Written by Marie Baumer and directed by William Keighley, the play ran for only 24 performances at the Fulton Theatre, closing on or about March 19^th. Considered a flop by anyone’s terms, the play caught the eye of Al Jolson, a singer/actor perhaps best known for The Jazz Singer (1927), the film that ushered in the sound era in Hollywood.

Jolson paid $20,000 for the film rights, which he later sold to Warner Bros. studios. Jolson had one provision, two of the cast members, James Cagney and Joan Blondell, be given parts in the film version. While they apparently auditioned for the leads, they did end up playing the same parts they had on stage.

What probably attracted the brothers Warner to the story was the gangster element. After the success of The Lights of New York (1928), the studios’ first all-talking feature, the gangster genre was developing into their specialty.

The play’s director, William Keighley would later go onto a career as a film director, but for this film John G. Adolfi was chosen. Adolfi’s career dated back to silent films, but he was not known as a director of gangster films, usually working on the films of genteel actor George Arliss.

Shot in three weeks, the film would open by the end of September and go into general release on October 10^th. Penny Arcade went through a few name changes, including Women in Love, before settling on Sinners’ Holiday. Cagney would recall in his autobiography that: “There was a great vogue for pictures with “holiday” in the title, and Sinners’ Holiday was a part of that trend. That title has as much to do with the picture as Winnie the Pooh!”

On an amusement park prier, Ma Delano (Lucille La Verne) owns and operates a penny arcade, along with other booths like the one next door run by Buck Rogers (Noel Madison) which is like a dunking booth with a twist. 

Rather than dumping the girl in the cage into water, hitting the bull’s-eye tips her back so that you can see up her skirt. If you hit the target hard enough and knock her so far back she falls off her perch, you win a cigar.

Harry (James Cagney) is Ma's (Lucille La Verne) favorite. Still, he's up to no good.

Ma Delano runs her arcade with the help of her children, Joe (Ray Gallagher), Jennie (Evalyn Knapp) and Harry (James Cagney). Joe does his best to keep the attractions running while Jennie is mostly sent on errands by Ma. Harry is Ma’s favorite and is a ne’er-do-well. Despite her ban on liquor, Harry spends most of his time at a nearby speakeasy run by Mitch (Warren Hymer). Mitch’s sideshow, which serves as a cover, features women in skimpy outfits. His barker for the sideshow is Angel Harrigan (Grant Withers), a drifter with a jail record.

Angel (Grant Withers) works as a barker for a sideshow run by Mitch.

Angel is in love with Jennie and, so apparently, is Mitch. When Mitch puts on the heavy pass on Jennie, Angel intercedes. Knowing that Jennie prefers Angel gets him fired, but Angel quits before Mitch can. Angel is about to leave town without saying good-bye, when Jennie sees him and talks him into staying, getting him a job with Ma at the penny arcade. She hires him to try to keep the machines running when Joe can’t.

Publicity shot re-enacting Angel stopping Mitch (Warren Hymer) from harassing Jennie (Evalyn Knapp).

Harry, unbeknownst to Ma, has been working with Mitch and actually takes over the operation of the speakeasy when Mitch is arrested by Detective Sykes (Purnell Pratt) on suspicion of murdering a cohort. Ma hates liquor, not because it’s illegal, but because what it had done to Harry’s father, her late husband. When she finds the Buck has been directing people to Mitch’s speakeasy, she fires him from his booth.

Mitch isn’t in jail for long, as the evidence wasn’t enough for an indictment. But as soon as he’s out of jail, he finds that Harry has been skimming profits from the speakeasy. He plans to get him and sends Buck to find Harry.

To celebrate his release, other barkers on the pier throw him a party. Harry doesn’t go and instead makes a date with Myrtle (Joan Blondell), who works as a model at another booth run by Happy (Hank Mann). Her job is to pose in a prop car with strange men. But Harry has to go see Ma first, leaving Myrtle to wait for him. But Ma doesn’t like Myrtle and doesn’t want Harry to leave the house, which is right next to the penny arcade.

Harry makes a date with Myrtle (Joan Blondell), but has to go see his Ma first.

Harry though, knowing that Mitch is looking for him, takes his brother’s gun, which is in with Angel’s things, and sneaks out of the house. Angel has previously been sent by Ma to look for Harry. Meanwhile, Mitch has commandeered Buck’s booth to wait for Harry to leave the house. Upstairs, Jennie is about to go to bed when she looks out her bedroom window which overlooks the pier. She sees Mitch confront Harry gun drawn. Harry, though, takes out his own gun and shoots and kills Mitch. Jennie watches while her brother pulls the dead body into the booth and locks it inside out of view.

Mitch confronts Harry about skimmy profits from the speakeasy.

A patrol cop hears the gunshots and comes running. Angel is returning back to Ma’s, where he has a room as part of his employment. The two talk, but Angel convinces him that it must have been a car backfire. Once the cop leaves, Harry sneaks back into the house.

The next morning, Detective Sykes returns to the pier looking for Mitch. Harry begs Myrtle to give him an alibi, which she agrees to do. When Angel tries to break into Buck’s old booth to retrieve a pair of pliers he had lent him and now needs, Jennie stops him.

Later, Buck returns to his booth and breaks in to retrieve some personal items he’d left there. When he finds the body, he tells Sykes, who is speaking to Ma at the penny arcade. Det. Sykes is suspicious of Harry at first, but Myrtle gives him an alibi, much to Happy’s dissatisfaction. (The relationship between Happy and Myrtle is never defined, but Happy, who has the most elaborate and still worst comb-over ever, at least, seems jealous of Myrtle being with other men.)

Happy (Hank Mann) has an elaborate but really obvious comb-over.

Sykes then suspects Angel, who not only had a public falling out with Mitch, but also has a criminal record. The police start to search the park and close it down to the public, much to Ma’s and the other proprietor’s dismay. While you would expect the police to start with Ma’s house, they don’t. While they’re waiting, Harry breaks down and confesses to Ma. Not happy about Jennie and Angel’s burgeoning romance and their plans to leave, Ma decides to kill two birds with one stone. She decides to hide the gun in plain sight, putting it back with Angel’s suitcase.

Eventually, the police find the murder weapon and arrest Angel for the murder. While they are taking him away, Jennie finally breaks down and tells Sykes that she saw her brother Harry shoot Mitch. Harry is then led away.

With the murder solved, the park is reopened. Ma has no time to worry about Harry; there are suckers to fleece. She even puts Angel back to work as barker out to bring in customers.

In order to save Angel from being taken away by Det. Sykes (Purnell Pratt),
Jennie finally admits her brother Harry shot Mitch.

There are no records available about how well the film did at the box-office; Time magazine did appreciate its length and concise story. However, for only 60 minutes there is still filler. There is a scene in the film with Jennie and Angel down at the beach. She seems to run hot and cold throughout the movie, openly flirting with Angel one minute and then here not wanting him to kiss her even when they are all alone under the pier. While I’m sure this might have played well on stage and their relationship is important to the plot, this still feels like wasted time.

Grant Withers, who is the lead, had his greatest success in early talkies. Young, handsome and able to show sensitivity, Withers would get top billing in two early Cagney films, this and Other Men’s Women (1931). But as the years went by, Withers' stature fell. While he did manage to get a 10 year contract at Republic Films, he did not have the splashy career Cagney was destined to have. In Sinners' Holiday, he seems to be good-natured with a dry sense of humor. He’s likable, which is about all his character is required to be.

Likewise, Evelyn Knapp was a star out of the gates with talking pictures. She was one of fourteen girls, along with the likes of Ginger Rogers and Gloria Stuart, selected as "WAMPAS Baby Stars" in 1932. She would star in Bachelor Mother (1932), a film that would be remade in 1939 with Ginger Rogers in the lead. Knapp would co-star with Cagney and Edward G. Robinson in Smart Money (1931) and find success in serials, starring in the title role in the Perils of Pauline (1933). In Sinners' Holiday, she is mostly fickle eye candy. Her character can’t seem to make up her mind if she’s in love with Angel or not, but she finally rises up to do the right thing, even If it means her brother goes to jail.

Lucille La Verne had been acting since 1888, starting out on stage before moving to silent films in 1915 with Over Night. She may be best remembered for, but uncredited as, the voice of the Queen and the Witch in Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), which would turn out to be her last film. Here she plays a strong and somewhat devious woman. She manages to infuse a rather one-dimensional role with a little depth.

While Cagney is not the star, you get the feeling he’s being prepared by the studio for bigger things. However, I wouldn’t say Cagney hit it out of the ballpark on his first time at bat. His character may play a killer, but it is almost by accident. This is not the tough gangster character that Cagney will become famous for playing. Harry, like Cody Jarrett in White Heat (1949), is a momma’s boy. Cagney, to his credit, plays it well and you can see the beginnings of a movie persona that he would get to develop over time. The Warner Bros. obviously say something, because his original contract, which had only covered the three week shoot, was extended and he was added to The Doorway to Hell (1930), starring Lew Ayres, that was already in production.

James Cagney, whose career was just starting, was going places after Sinners' Holiday.

Joan Blondell had appeared in a few Warner Bros. shorts before Sinners' Holiday, including Broadway’s Like That (1930), which also starred Humphrey Bogart, and the feature The Office Wife (1930), which was shot at the same time as, but released before, Sinners' Holiday. Blondell is underused in this role, mostly limited to looking pretty, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of meat on Myrtle’s bones.

Joan Blondell isn't given much to do in Sinners' Holiday.

One other note about the actors in the film, Hank Mann, Myrtle’s boss Happy, got his start as one of cinema’s first film comedians, working with Mack Sennett’s Keystone Studios, as an original Keystone Cop. Fellow ensemble actor, Edgar Kennedy, credits Mann with originating the idea for the Cops in the first place. Again, his part in the film doesn’t really stretch the actor or give him a chance to demonstrate any comedic capabilities.

This is one of those films that is almost over before you know it. Typical of Warner Bros. programmers of the time, no grass grows under the characters in this film. The plot keeps moving forward, taking only a slight break for the scene with Jennie and Angel on the beach. The story really isn’t that bad, complete with treachery and deceit and, of course, murder. While this definitely has the elements of the gangster genre, including prohibition and a speakeasy, Sinners' Holiday is not nearly as violent nor the characters as menacing as would become more typical of the genre.

Overall, Sinners' Holiday is a film that might have gone completely unnoticed if it hadn’t been the debut of James Cagney, one of the biggest stars of the 1930s and 40s. A decent film, but certainly not a great one, it is worth watching if you’re a fan of Cagney’s.