THEY CALL IT SIN

Loretta Young and David Manners

THEY CALL IT SIN (1932). Director: Thornton Freeland.

New Yorker Jimmy Decker (David Manners of Crooner), supposedly a "nice guy", is engaged to Edith Hollister (Helen Vincent). On a business trip to Kansas, he meets up with church organist Marion (Loretta Young) and begins a romance with her. After Jimmy returns to Manhattan, Marion's hateful mother (Elizabeth Patterson) tells her that she is not only "sinful" but was adopted and not wanted in the first place. Marion takes off to New York to find David, as well as work as a musician, but she doesn't know that the guy has a fiancee ...

Loretta Young and George Brent 

In New York Marion gets involved with two other men, Jimmy's friend, Dr. Travers (George Brent) and theatrical impresario Ford Humprhies (Louis Calhern of Athena). The latter character, who hits on women shamelessly and fires them if they don't play ball, is meant to be the true "bad guy" to make Jimmy look better, but that doesn't quite work. In any case, the film has an abrupt, surprising and unconvincing wind-up that -- despite this being a "pre-code" film -- smacks of compromise, although most viewers will be glad that Marion winds up with the man she eventually chooses. There are also some melodramatic and rather absurd complications before the fade-out.

Hateful: Elizabeth Patteron. 

Young gives an excellent performance, which is no surprise. Manners and Brent are both fine, but it is Calhern who nearly steals the movie from the better-looking gentlemen. Elizabeth Patterson is sterling as usual in a very unsympathetic part that is a far cry from the babysitter on I Love Lucy. The scene when she reveals the truth to her "daughter" is one of the best in the movie. Jimmy is such a clueless idiot that he actually asks his fiancee to take Marion under her wing -- this before either lady even knows what's going on! Una Merkel [Red-Headed Woman]  is also in the cast as a chorus girl friend of Marion's and she is even more ugly and grotesque than usual. George Brent is top-billed with Young even though Manners has the much, much bigger role.

Verdict: Morally ambiguous, but at least it's unpredictable for the most part. **1/4. 

TORCH SINGER

TORCH SINGER (1933). Director: Alexander Hall [with George Somnes].

"Why couldn't you have been a boy? The world's such a tough place for a girl to come to."

Sally Trent (Claudette Colbert), who had to give up her illegitimate baby girl for adoption, is a notorious torch singer who causes one scandal after another, but she is also known as "Aunt Jenny" (under the name Mimi Benton), the much-beloved singing hostess of a radio show for kiddies! Sally hopes to use the program to somehow reconnect with her little girl. Ricardo Cortez is Sally's producer and David Manners is the father of her baby. Baby Leroy [The Old-Fashioned Way] is in the cast (and gets high billing) as the baby of Sally's friend early in the picture, but the adorable little tyke hardly gets any scenes -- for shame! Colbert, obviously having a lot of fun, is swell in this picture; she can't sing to save her life but puts over her song numbers in spite of it. Mildred Washington is a delight as Carrie, Sally's sassy maid, and there's a nice bit from a little black child actress -- whom Sally hopes is her daughter until she sees her and realizes it isn't --  who is uncredited. It would have been nice to see the reaction of the sponsors when they finally discover who "Aunt Sally" really is, but we never do. 

Verdict: Completely contrived but very entertaining with Colbert in fine fettle. ***.

CROONER

CROONER (1932). Director: Lloyd Bacon.

"I wonder how you can posssibly stretch the subject of yourself over two more days."

"Radio: Marconi's gift to the morons!"

Band leader Teddy Taylor (David Manners, pictured) fills in for his sick vocalist and sings in such a low voice that a drunk patron (Guy Kibbee) tells him to use a megaphone. Taylor does so -- and discovers that now the ladies think his voice is just swell. The manager (J. Carroll Naish) notices that the women are practically swooning over Teddy and offers him a contract. He becomes known as the S.A. [sex appeal] singer. But Teddy's girlfriend Judy (Ann Dvorak) importunes an agent friend who loves her, Peter (Ken Murray), to take Teddy on as a client. Before long Teddy is speaking in an affected voice, acting like he thinks he's the greatest thing since Caruso [in actuality he's not a very good singer] and believing his own publicity. The funniest scene has the ass trying to sing opera! But anyone who gets this swell-headed is bound to take a fall ... This is a fast-paced, amusing comedy with excellent performances from everyone in the cast; Dvorak is as lovely as ever. You're left with the feeling, however, that she winds up with the wrong guy at the end. Probably inspired by the career of Rudy Vallee, at least as far as the megaphone goes.

Verdict: There's no accounting for taste. **1/2.

DRACULA (1931)

DRACULA (1931). Director: Tod Browning. Adapted from the Hamilton Deane play taken from Bram Stoker's novel. Photographed by Karl Freund.

77 years after its release Dracula seems a bit stately and campy, but it does have its eerie moments courtesy of the basic premise, Karl Freund's atmospheric photography, and some great (if somewhat overdone) sets, such as the great castle with its cavernous, crumbling entrance hall (complete with armadillos, no less!) and the staircase with its huge, almost comical spider web. At first the great Bela Lugosi seems mannered and slow, but he remains a fascinating performer, and his interpretation of the vampire will probably remain definitive. The movie is rather slow-moving and cries out for music. Helen Chandler, David Manners, Edward Van Sloan (as Van Helsing) and the other actors are competent, but don't really make that much of an impression. Dwight Frye's maniacal performance as the likable lad, Renfield, whom Dracula turns into a blithering mad man is certainly inescapable, however -- and more or less effective. Followed by Dracula's Daughter.

A Spanish version with different actors was made on the same sets at the same time.

NOTE: A version of Lugosi's Dracula with a new score by Philip Glass is available on DVD. Glass' score is uneven, sometimes adding tension and other times inappropriate and distracting. It is performed by the Kronos Quartet and is not a symphonic score, which would have made more sense but also been much more expensive. NOTE: Photographer Freund later directed The Mummy.

Verdict: Creaky but somewhat memorable. **1/2.

THE MUMMY

THE MUMMY (1932). Director: Karl Freund.

Boris Karloff plays "Ardath Bey," actually a mummy (High Priest Im-ho-tep) who awakened after 3700 years and wants to be reunited with the reincarnation of his beloved, Princess Anck-es-en-Amon or Helen Grosvenor (Zita Johann). Aside from the first scene, Karloff is never seen in mummy wrappings, and doesn't stalk around -- he uses psychic powers to draw people to him or give them heart attacks. None of the modern-day characters ever ask this ancient figure a single question about his fascinating life centuries before; they only think of him as "evil" even before he kills anyone. [Im-ho-tep had committed sacrilege by trying to bring his beloved back to life and was buried alive.] Karloff gives an intense performance, and Zita Johann, while rather unusual-looking, is quite good as well. Edward Van Sloan and David Manners are about the same as ever. Universal gets credit for an interesting idea and a new "monster," but The Mummy is slow and unexciting. Atmospheric photography and music by Charles Stumar and James Dietrich respectively. Karl Freund was a famous German cinematographer before emigrating to America -- this was his first directorial assignment (after photographing the Bela Lugosi Dracula) and he wasn't up to the challenge.

V

erdict: Classic, perhaps, but still not that great. **.