Sin and sinners: two things early Hollywood had a hang up on. Let's see there was "Sin Takes a Holiday" (1930), "My Sin" (1931), "Laughing Sinners" (1931), "They Call it Sin" (1932), "The Sin of Madelon Claudet" (1931), "The Virtuous Sin" (1930), "Charming Sinners" (1929), this movie ("Sinners in the Sun"), and who knows how many others.
"Sinners in the Sun" started us off with regular working class folks then they tied in rich, society folks as if it was mandatory. You could barely escape society folks in 30's movies and they were some of the most pretentious and morally bankrupt people on Earth.
Jimmie* Martin (Chester Morris) was in love with Doris Blake (Carole Lombard) and she was in love with him. Jimmie was a mechanic while Doris was a clothes model at a department store. Jimmie wanted to marry Doris, while Doris was against the idea as they were currently financially situated. She lived at home with her parents, her sister, and her brother-in-law. As she saw it, if she married Jimmie now they'd end up just like her sister and BIL.
Doris wanted the finer things in life: clothes, furs, jewels, trips--and Jimmie couldn't provide those at the moment. She didn't mean that Jimmie had to be rich, just better off. Jimmie understood from her rejection that she valued money over love, and with that he made a clean break.
He began chauffeuring Claire Kinkaid (Adrienne Ames) who was fond of him while Doris sort of hooked up with Eric Nelson (Walter Byron), a rich playboy.
I have to take this moment to comment on something that I see too often in the older movies and it's something I've commented on before. When Eric met Doris she was swimming. While the two of them took a break on a little floating dock he started his mating ritual. Part of his ritual was to pin Doris and forcibly kiss her. She slapped him, but the slap was more of a statement like, "I am a lady" or "I'm not that type of girl," but the slap wasn't "stay away from me you perverted creep" or "if you come near me again I'll claw your eyes out."
What I mean is that the slap was not much of a deterrent. I gather that he probably got slapped quite often and just continued his pursuit. He continued his pursuit of Doris and it worked, like it's worked in so many movies of that era. She gave in to his persistence and began dating him (though it wasn't a romantic thing from her perspective); a married man. Her family kicked her out because they had morals, but Doris failed to see that she was doing anything wrong.
The most important thing here is the forcible kiss because it occurred on screen so much with no repercussions (except if the guy was a bad guy) that it certainly helped reinforce to a generation of men that that was the way to get a woman. Take control and take what you want. If she rebuffs you, then she's just playing hard to get.
Doris had few choices after being kicked out, so being Eric's mistress was the easy solution to her housing problem (see "The Easiest Way" (1931)). When Jimmie saw Doris with Eric he decided to accept Claire's proposal and marry her. Neither of them were happy with their arrangements even though their arrangements were filled with drinking, partying, dancing, and spending lots of money.
The core message was that money wasn't everything and it certainly couldn't replace love. It was something Doris had to find out for herself. She found out rather rudely when Eric dropped her and essentially handed her to Ridgway (Cary Grant) like a football. If she didn't already feel cheap, that did it.
In the end she and Jimmie got back together as it was meant to be. They had to learn some things about themselves before realizing what was more important. Jimmie had acted in haste by breaking things off and Doris had her priorities mixed up when she insisted on Jimmie being more successful. The ending was cute and romantic. More importantly, they were both back to working and were away from the society crowd and their queer culture.
*Hollywood has always loved J names for men: James, Jimmy, Jack, and John were the most popular
Free on Odnoklassniki.
"Sinners in the Sun" started us off with regular working class folks then they tied in rich, society folks as if it was mandatory. You could barely escape society folks in 30's movies and they were some of the most pretentious and morally bankrupt people on Earth.
Jimmie* Martin (Chester Morris) was in love with Doris Blake (Carole Lombard) and she was in love with him. Jimmie was a mechanic while Doris was a clothes model at a department store. Jimmie wanted to marry Doris, while Doris was against the idea as they were currently financially situated. She lived at home with her parents, her sister, and her brother-in-law. As she saw it, if she married Jimmie now they'd end up just like her sister and BIL.
Doris wanted the finer things in life: clothes, furs, jewels, trips--and Jimmie couldn't provide those at the moment. She didn't mean that Jimmie had to be rich, just better off. Jimmie understood from her rejection that she valued money over love, and with that he made a clean break.
He began chauffeuring Claire Kinkaid (Adrienne Ames) who was fond of him while Doris sort of hooked up with Eric Nelson (Walter Byron), a rich playboy.
I have to take this moment to comment on something that I see too often in the older movies and it's something I've commented on before. When Eric met Doris she was swimming. While the two of them took a break on a little floating dock he started his mating ritual. Part of his ritual was to pin Doris and forcibly kiss her. She slapped him, but the slap was more of a statement like, "I am a lady" or "I'm not that type of girl," but the slap wasn't "stay away from me you perverted creep" or "if you come near me again I'll claw your eyes out."
What I mean is that the slap was not much of a deterrent. I gather that he probably got slapped quite often and just continued his pursuit. He continued his pursuit of Doris and it worked, like it's worked in so many movies of that era. She gave in to his persistence and began dating him (though it wasn't a romantic thing from her perspective); a married man. Her family kicked her out because they had morals, but Doris failed to see that she was doing anything wrong.
The most important thing here is the forcible kiss because it occurred on screen so much with no repercussions (except if the guy was a bad guy) that it certainly helped reinforce to a generation of men that that was the way to get a woman. Take control and take what you want. If she rebuffs you, then she's just playing hard to get.
Doris had few choices after being kicked out, so being Eric's mistress was the easy solution to her housing problem (see "The Easiest Way" (1931)). When Jimmie saw Doris with Eric he decided to accept Claire's proposal and marry her. Neither of them were happy with their arrangements even though their arrangements were filled with drinking, partying, dancing, and spending lots of money.
The core message was that money wasn't everything and it certainly couldn't replace love. It was something Doris had to find out for herself. She found out rather rudely when Eric dropped her and essentially handed her to Ridgway (Cary Grant) like a football. If she didn't already feel cheap, that did it.
In the end she and Jimmie got back together as it was meant to be. They had to learn some things about themselves before realizing what was more important. Jimmie had acted in haste by breaking things off and Doris had her priorities mixed up when she insisted on Jimmie being more successful. The ending was cute and romantic. More importantly, they were both back to working and were away from the society crowd and their queer culture.
*Hollywood has always loved J names for men: James, Jimmy, Jack, and John were the most popular
Free on Odnoklassniki.