They Call It Sin

There is really nothing here that couldn't have been shown in the production code era. In fact it could be a training film on how to make a seemingly sensational film in the production code era without any of the protagonists actually sinning.

Loretta Young is lovely as always as Marion, an amateur composer from a small Kansas town who heads for New York to pursue both a career in music and Jimmy, a man she loves whom she doesn't know is engaged to someone else. Fortunately, once in New York, she makes the acquaintance of chorus girl Dixie Dare (Una Merkel), a gold digger with a heart of gold, and physician Tony Travers (George Brent) who also just happens to be Jimmy's best friend. Not so fortunately she makes the acquaintance of Broadway producer Ford Humphries (Louis Calhern). When he finds he can't steal Marion's heart he steals her songs instead, claiming he wrote them himself and putting them in his show without reimbursing her. Meanwhile, Jimmy has gone through with his marriage but can't get Marion off of his mind. Tony also loves Marion and proposes. All of these story lines converge dramatically. How? Watch and find out.

The only real sinner here is Calhern as the slimy Humphries - he was an excellent villain in many films through the years - the devil in a three piece suit. It is rather implied that Marion might be sleeping with Humphries since he is paying the rent on her apartment, but their scenes together with her wiggling out of all of his embraces as though he were a squid makes me wonder. Una Merkel is a delight as Marion's loyal friend and steals every scene as she cartwheels - literally - through the film. Oddly enough George Brent is second billed when he actually gets very little screen time.

Rather sad is Marion Byron, an actress who played supporting parts similar to Una Merkel in the very early talkie era, who by this time was reduced to uncredited roles. Here she is a spunky soda jerk in the small Kansas town who flirts with Jimmy and gets nowhere.

Recommended for anyone who enjoys the Warner precodes of the era.

This film caught my attention immediately because of the great actors in this film and Loretta Young, (Marion Cullen) who looked so radiant as a church organist in a very small church. David Manners plays the role as Jimmy Decker who comes from a rich family and is an engaged man to his boss's daughter. Jimmy Decker visits Kansas and walks into a church and is struck by the beauty of Marion Cullen who plays the hymns: "On Ward Christian Soldiers" and "Rock of Ages" which seem to captivate his heart strings. Jimmy gets deeply involved with Marion and she gets into a problem with her mother and father and they tell her she is an adopted girl and they do not think she is a good Christian and in many ways disown her. Marion runs off to New York City and seeks out Jimmy Decker and then the trouble starts for this couple in love. Great film and George Brent, (Dr. Tony Travers) gave a great supporting role. Enjoy.

A startlingly mature teenage Loretta Young stars in this fast-moving melodrama as Marion Cullen, a songwriter who leaves her Kansas home for New York City to shape a career in show business and to follow the man she loves, Jimmy Decker (David Manners), a salesman whose business junket to her home town has tied their hearts together. Decker, however, is betrothed to another (Helen Vinson) and Marion discovers that success in her new profession benefits from a relationship with Ford Humphries (Louis Calhern), an influential producer but a libertine whose demands upon her include more than her ability to craft tuneful pieces for the stage. Decker, now married, continues to harbour his love for Marion, as does his best friend, medical doctor Tony Travers (George Brent) and it remains for the young musician to decide which of the three men she will choose and what sort of position she will prefer for herself, that as mistress, wife, or other woman. Graceful Loretta Young is asked to provide acting skill instead of solely her superb bone structure, and she does so to good result in mosaical scenes, displaying a full range of emotions while making them believable and, of course, is a perfect mannequin for the Orry-Kelly gowns with which she is raimented. David Manners must rely upon more than his profile here, and the stage-trained actor performs creditably, specially so in airy scenes, while silky George Brent and shrewd Louis Calhern execute their roles well; it is Una Merkel as Dixie Dare, Marion's Gotham companion, who nearly steals the show with her rendering of a salty-mouthed, high-stepping chorus girl. The entire production benefits from the extensive cinematic background of director Thornton Freeland who utilizes an interesting assortment of camera angles, is responsible for the crisp cutting and editing and handles his extras with sureness, with only the abrupt final minutes barring the work from achieving a higher aesthetic plane.

They Call It Sin (1932)

One of many really good Loretta Young films from this era. She's young and energized and makes a great lead. This story of a sweet country girl being swept off her feet by a genuinely nice man must have struck to the core of women all over the country. Nothing extraordinary here, but all in all well done and compact.

There are parts of the film that feel like it's an early talkie—they are a bit stiff— but there are many more parts, especially with Young, that are so fresh and alive they feel almost contemporary. The other big name is George Brent, more famous for many low key roles next to Bette Davis, and it's fun to see him so young here. But it's actually the two other leading actors —there are four—who match Young for energy on the screen. One is the other man, a common kind of actor (David Manners) with believable energy. The second is a sassy woman who supports Young through her travails, Una Merkel.

So in all they make a fast and strangely interwoven group. You won't find the sexually suggestive layers of other pre-Code films here, even though some rules are seemingly broken. But you will find a freshness, if not intensity, that keeps this breezy drama going. They call it entertainment.

Merkel, Brent, Manners, and Young had JUST gotten into films at the tail end of the silents, but were even bigger hits in the talkies. Marion (Young) is the organist at a small town church, and meets Jimmy (David Manners). They hit it off, but when she shows up in New York, now there's explaining to be done. Fun scene where Dixie (Una Merkel) asks Marion for a cigarette, and when she says no, Dixie takes one of her own out anyway, and smokes it! Then they try to wiggle their way into show biz. Marion has real talent, and Dixie is full of energy and sass. Directed by Thornton Freeland, whose NEXT film would be the awesome "Flying Down to Rio..." check it out, if you haven't seen it. fun stuff. early Rogers and Astaire. Fun show about a show.