Review of Sin Takes a Holiday (1930) by Tom H — 13 Nov 2004
Kenneth MacKenna plays a live-alone-and-like-it kind of guy about to be roped into marriage by a woman who has named him in her current divorce proceedings. How does he get out of this jam? He marries his Plain-Jane secretary, of course! But how to keep up that bachelor lifestyle with a wife around? Send her to Paris by herself!
Complications ensue when Plain-Jane newlywed meets MacKenna's pal Basil Rathbone en route to Europe, gets a makeover and turns out to be Constance Bennett. Naturally Bennett & Rathbone fall in love and I shall cruelly keep from you the knowledge of which man she chooses. I'm a saditisc bastard, ain't I?
When I found this film on DVD this afternoon I was thrilled. At the price of $7.99, I wasn't expecting a particularly good transfer (I was right), but the prospect of seeing a new-to-me Constance Bennett Pre-Code was exciting in and of itself. As it turns out, I had already seen it. I watched it a few months ago when I taped it off of TCM. Eh bien.
The dialogue gets off to a rocky start but, strangely, improves as the film continues. The last scene in particular crackles with the sort of one-liners I gladly repeat here if I had the mental capabilities to do so.
The acting is generally well-done. Constance Bennett's performace, while not her best, does evince evidence of the work that was to come in her later pictures. And Zasu Pitts has a small role, hands a-flutterin' and all. And really, who could ask for anything more for $7.99?
This review of Sin Takes a Holiday (1930) was written by Tom H on 13 Nov 2004.
Sin Takes a Holiday has generally received mixed reviews.
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