zardoz-13 Review of Sinners' Holiday

Sinners' Holiday (1930)

Cagney's Cinematic Debut Anticipated his antics in "White Heat"

[8/10 · 28 June 2016]

James Cagney made his cinematic debut as a reckless, irresponsible, narcissistic bootlegger who conceals his criminal endeavors from his long-suffering mother in director John G. Adolfi's "Sinner's Holiday," co-starring Joan Blondell. This early black & white movie is an adaptation of Marie Baumer's stage play "Penny Arcade." Since I haven't read Baumer's play, I cannot attest to the film's fidelity to its source material. This Warner Brothers/First National release concerns the activities of a Penny Arcade in New York City and the various hucksters who operate on W.C. Fields' credo that "There's a sucker born every minute." Character actor Grant Withers, who you might have seen in John Ford's memorable westerns "Fort Apache," "Rio Grande," and "My Darling Clementine," takes top billing as smooth-talking Angel Harrigan, and he has his eyes on pretty young Jenny (Evalyn Knapp of "His Private Secretary"), whose mother (Lucille La Verne of "Orphans of the Storm") owns the premises and rents out booths to various entrepreneurs. One of those entrepreneurs is a shady guy, Mitch (Warren Hymer of "Meet Joe Doe"), who bootlegs beers on the side. Ma Delano's son Harry (James Cagney) has fallen under Mitch's evil influence. Appropriately enough, Harry has learned not only the ropes of the bootlegging business, but he also plans to double-cross Mitch after the latter is pulled in a warrant by the police. Mitch happens to like Jenny, but she won't give him the time of day. One day when Angel irritates Mitch, Mitch gives him the boot, but Angel quits before he is officially fired. Ultimately, Angel and Jenny become a couple and she persuades her mother to hire Angel as a mechanic. After Mitch gets out of the slammer, he discovers that treacherous Harry has been swindling him. They encounter each other in an ally with firearms, and Harry plugs Mitch and then stashes the body out of sight in a building on the premises. Ironically, Harry's sister witnesses the shooting, but she clams up about it until the police decide to arrest Angel for the homicide. As it turns out, the revolver that Harry used to ice Mitch belonged to Angel. Ma Delano, who has already lost her husband, doesn't want to lose Harry. Initially, she tells Harry to put the revolver back in Angel's suitcase. Reluctantly, Jenny informs the police about the identity of real killer. Since the cops had closed down the arcade during their painstaking investigation, business resumes as usual with Angel back at work. This dated outing has some interesting period flavor, particularly in its blue-collar argot. At one point, Cagney's sniveling Harry perches himself on his mother's knees just as he would do decade later as Cody Jarrett in Raoul Walsh's classic "White Heat." Joan Blondell plays a woman who allows men to have their pictures taken with them. One of the most amusing sights—pretty risqué if you think about it—is a game where you get to sling balls at women sitting on chairs to win a prize. If you like old Warner Brothers' melodramas, you cannot do better than the 60-minute "Sinner's Holiday."