Sing Sinner Sing

Leila Hyams is the leading act on Paul Lukas' gambling ship. She's also his live-in girlfriend. Rich, perpetually drunk Don Dillaway proposes marriage, and Leila accepts; pal Ruth Donnelly keeps adding onto the alimony, but Leila cares for the guy, until....

It's a startlingly well-cast movie from Larry Darmour productions, with one-time director Howard Christie allowing cinematographer Ira Morgan free rein with a moving camera and process shots for the first half. Although this production clearly spends little money on sets, and is just two steps above an exploitation movie, it's clear that Darmour was using the major studios' cast-off talent to make his big move into the big-time. It didn't work; 1933 was another disastrous year for the movie industry. This movie was soon forgotten, and MGM recycled the idea, based on the suspicious death of tobacco heir Zachary Smith Reynolds into RECKLESS for William Powell & Jean Harlow.

As indicated above, Christie never directed another movie. Instead, he became a producer for Universal. He worked on Abbott & Costello movies, westerns, whatever came his way. Eventually he was appointed a vice-president in charge of television. He retired in 1970 and died in 1992, age 79.