Sin Takes a Holiday (1930)
I'm not too sure who Sin is that takes a holiday in this film. At first I thought it was the woman in it, played by Constance Bennett, but it turns out that she's called Sylvia. Maybe it's sin itself. And for whatever reason, it's having a break in this film. It might explain why the film explores sinful elements.
This is another of those "pre-Code" films, produced before the Hays Code was enforced in the USA from 1934. The Code which was all about making sure films didn't appear to endorse moral misbehaviour. Prior to that, many films did, such as this.
In the Big Apple, Sylvia is secretary to Gaylord Stanton (Kenneth MacKenna), a horny divorce lawyer with a name that shouldn't be funny but kind of is. He prefers that the women he sleeps around with are already married. He isn't after anything serious, so having affairs where there are no-strings attached makes things easier for him.
It appears that Sylvia may also have fallen for Gaylord's charms. But as she's "plain", he barely acknowledges her. Instead he prefers to tart around with his glamorous married female friends. One of them, Grace (Rita La Foy), announces that she is divorcing her husband, leaving her available to marry Gaylord. The idea doesn't sit well with Gaylord. Not only does Grace call him "dear" every other word, which is annoying enough, it means his days of messing around with other married women are numbered.
The solution? He could marry Sylvia! He proposes to her, with the incentive that he'll support her financially and allow her to live wherever she wants, while he can continue living it large with other married ladies, and not have to marry Grace. It's win-win-win. They agree that they'll be married in name only, not in "fact", which is probably fortunate for Sylvia as he's probably caught all kinds of things from his wandering ways.
After the marriage ceremony, Gaylord farms Sylvia off to Paris. He tells Grace of his wife that he's somehow never thought to mention before, and that this means he's inconveniently unavailable for marriage. He can't divorce his wife because she's ill somewhere, but as she's going to be away for months, they can continue their dalliance.
In France, while on her solo honeymoon, Sylvia bumps into Reggie Durant (Basil Rathbone), one of Gaylord's friends. She gets increasingly stylish as she lavishes herself with the latest in Paris fashions. She catches the eye of men, but it's Reggie who falls in love with her, attempting to get into her knickers and woo her with lines like "you won't be forever on a honeymoon that might as well be spent in a nunnery." Reggie proposes, but she needs to convince herself of her feelings for Gaylord.
She returns to New York, now full of confidence, radiance and glamour. Gaylord, who's about as emotionally deep as a puddle, invites her to move her things into his apartment and take her lawful place besides him. Oh yes, that's probably code for "you're my rightful wife, you owe me fun cuddles".
He throws a mini-tantrum when Sylvia starts talking of how well Reggie has been treating her in Paris, and Reggie talks of his feelings for Sylvia. Grace tries to convince Gaylord that he must divorce Sylvia, then tries to convince Sylvia the same. But neither Gaylord or Sylvia are having any of it. They decide that they're in love with each other, and they ungraciously dispose of Grace and Reggie.
In a way, it's quite an unpleasant story. Gaylord treats women like trash, and only proposes to Sylvia to get him out of a hole. She seemed infatuated with him, but why? His interest only piqued when others began showing an interest in her. And poor Reggie - he offered Sylvia everything on a plate, but she just pushed him to one side as soon as it seemed that she had a genuine chance with Gaylord. Yep, even in the 1930s, nice guys finish last, and the idiots get the girl.
Like a lot of films of the era, it captures a certain sector of 1930s society. It was the time of the Great Depression, but a lot of films show the well-to-do living their glamorous lifestyles in glamorous buildings - they have dinner parties, attend shows, go dancing at ballrooms, and sneer at those below them. This is seen by the way Sylvia is treated when she is just a plain secretary.
I'll probably mention it about a lot of films in this era too, but Sin Takes a Holiday did things that wouldn't be possible a few years later, due to the Hays Code. Although it ends with the husband and wife eventually honouring their marriage vows, the overall attitude to marriage, affairs and divorce is morally ambiguous throughout the rest of it. The Divorcee is another film from the same year with similar themes.
So, Sin Takes a Holiday isn't a great film, but it's not a bad one either. It's an easy watch, although is slow-paced and a bit talky in parts. It might make you want to reach through the screen and shake some sense into everyone involved, or it might leave you thinking about Reggie sipping brandy somewhere in despair.