Sinners in the Sun

A beautifully written and sometimes magnificently played serious movie. Chester Morris and Carole Lombard love each other, but she is terrified of the corrosive effects of the life of poverty that she foresees with Morris. So they break up and drift into lives as a kept woman and a gigolo.

The two are almost perfect in their roles; Chester Morris plays a character who is almost unable to phrase a clear thought and pulls it off beautifully, for a wonderful payoff scene. Miss Lombard only fails in one scene, towards the end, when she is contemplating suicide: I blame the heavy-handed direction of it rather than her performance. But the movie is riddled with wonderful performances: the always excellent Alison Skipworth as Lombard's supportive mother; Reginald Barlow as the father who gives her no chance; Adrienne Ames and Walter Byron as their likable seducers. Particularly good is Rita La Roy, an actress whom I have never noticed before, as a kept woman who kills herself -- alas, this was her best part in the movies, After her career faded out she sold yachts. Cary Grant is also present in a small role, in his second movie, but if you're not paying attention to the soundtrack you could easily miss him: his voice was far more distinctive than his good looks at this stage of his career.

There is a happy ending, but it feels forced. That is the one flaw in this movie. Otherwise it is well worth your time.