Sing Sinner Sing

SING SINNER SING apparently was remade as a Carole Lombard film A Brief MOMENT and later The Jean Harlow film RECKLESS. I am sure it is not the first time a poverty row production was picked up by the majors and re churned into an A list feature. SING SINNER SING is an extremely well made and at times quite lavish film from tiny indie Majestic Pictures, one of the many small outfits who produced above their weight in the early 30s. Often a company like this was just an office without a studio. What they created well was a plan to hire sets and costumes from big budget films which were just wrapped; Majestic would hire the standing sets and available costumes and shoot either at night or the week the bigger film finished and while the sets still stood. As a result they got to use studio facilities they could never afford to own but could hire and make their own film allowing for a veneer of quality. Many of these films were made at RKO Pathe Studios (or at TIFFANY after they stopped production) in 1933, TIFFANY were very well equipped but ceased production in 1932, and RKO was in dire financial need in late '32, so there was plenty of great sets costumes and fittings and furniture available for a tiny production outfit to make a lavish film without owning a stick of wood. SING SINNER SING moves from gambling ship to a mansion on shore and into high society. It is all about an irresponsible playboy and his torch singer bride and how his parents sneer at her as being too lowly for him. However he does love her and fights their snobbery. A terrific subplot involves a rich benefactor and an amazing murder trial. There is robbery, drunken parties, sneering ermine clad parents, and a court case with a jawdropper of a revelation. SING SINNER SING also has a song exactly like the Fanny Brice hit MY MAN. SING SINNER SING is a hard film to find and the print on the DVD that I saw was very lumpy. However for a no budget film it pulls off the very creative feat of an almost A level film that clearly was good enough to be copied by the majors twice over.

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.