Sing Sinner Sing
Cast & Crew
Howard Christy
Paul Lukas
Leila Hyams
Donald Dillaway
Ruth Donnelly
George E. Stone
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
After her song on the gambling ship Monte Carlo , Lela Larson greets her philandering lover, Phil Carida, who owns the ship, in her dressing room, and he promises her a vacation the next week. Although her pal in the chorus, Margaret Flannigan, urges her to respond to the persistent attentions of drunken millionaire Ted Rendon, Lela just laughs him off. As she leaves her dressing room for her next number, the drunken Rendon enters her closet and remains there. Meanwhile, two hoods waylay Phil's assistant Jerry and with Louis, one of the cashiers, plan to rob the casino. Lela returns to her dressing room, and when she finds Phil embracing a chorus girl, she says she is quitting. The two hoods decide to throw Louie overboard and split the money between them. Jerry revives, and when he learns that Louie is in on the plot, he gets a gun and holds Louie at bay. Meanwhile, Ted wanders out of the closet and Phil hits him. After Phil learns about the stick-up, Lela, looking through a port hole, sees Phil shoot Louie. With Maggie's encouragement, Lela then agrees to marry Ted so that she can escape from the ship. As they leave on Ted's boat, Phil yells out a threat. One of the hoods then grabs Phil and makes him open the safe, and Phil is shot during an exchange of gunfire. Six weeks later in New York, Ted, although he has promised to stop drinking, carouses in clubs drinking with women, in particular with a blonde named Gwen. Maggie visits Lela and tells about the shooting and that Phil gave up the ship. When Phil, convalescing in a hospital, learns about Ted and Lela, he leaves despite the doctor's warning. That night, Maggie witnesses Ted, in a drunken stupor, try to strangle Lela and promises to testify against him, but Lela only feels sorry for him. The next day, Ted apologizes, but says that he cannot stop drinking. Ted's uncle and aunt, worried that Lela is a gold digger, arrive and try to buy her off, saying that they will never release Ted's money as long as she is married to him. Ted sticks by Lela and says that he drinks to forget the taint of madness in his family, then orders them out. Later, at a party, when Lela finds Ted tussling with Gwen, she and Maggie take him upstairs and phone for a doctor. Just then, Phil drives up and enters surreptitiously. Lela tells the guests that they must leave, but Gwen dissents, saying that they won't leave until Ted tells them to. In the bedroom, Ted revives and after looking at himself into the mirror, gets a gun from the drawer. Lela enters and demands the gun. They struggle, and when Ted says that he will kill her also, she locks herself in the bathroom. As the guests go upstairs and Phil enters the bedroom, Ted puts the gun to his head. When Lela hears the shot, she rushes to Ted and faints when she sees his body. Phil leaves the room, and the drunken guests burst in. Lela is accused of the murder, and she is about to be convicted, when Phil, to save her, bursts into the courtroom and, after firing a gun, falsely shouts that he killed Ted. Because of his love for Lela, Phil dies in the electric chair. Lela later resumes her job as a singer.
Director
Howard Christy
Cast
Paul Lukas
Leila Hyams
Donald Dillaway
Ruth Donnelly
George E. Stone
Joyce Compton
Jill Dennett
Arthur Hoyt
Walter Mcgrail
Gladys Blake
Arthur Houseman
Edgar Norton
John St. Polis
Stella Adams
Pat O'malley
Walter Brennan
William Humphrey
Crew
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
New York Times stated that this film was "obviously inspired by the Smith Reynolds-Libby Holman case," and Variety called the film "the rehash of a notoriety involving a torch singer and her millionaire husband." In 1932, singer and actress Libby Holman, who had been secretly married to tobacco heir Zachary Smith Reynolds II, was charged with his murder after he was found shot to death, as was one of Reynolds' friends. Both charges were finally dropped. For more information concerning the incident, please see the above entry for Reckless, a 1935 M-G-M film that was also inspired by the case. Variety commented, "The vocal dubbing for Miss Hyams' singing is obvious" and noted the use of "lots of stock library stuff for the jazz and cabaret clips." The Exhibitor in March 1933 noted that the release of this film was being held up. According to NYSA information, this film was re-issued in 1953 under the title Queen of Joy and in 1957 under the title Clip Joint.
