Laughing Sinners
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Laughing Sinners |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1931 |
| length | 73 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Harry Beaumont |
| script | Bess Meredyth , Martin Flavin , Edith Fitzgerald |
| production | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| camera | Charles Rosher |
| cut | Hugh Wynn |
| occupation | |
| |
Laughing Sinners is an American film starring Joan Crawford and Clark Gable and directed by Harry Beaumont . After destructive previews, the film was largely re-shot and partly with a different cast. It was the second of eight joint appearances by the screen couple Crawford - Gable.
action
The nightclub singer Ivy Stevens has a laid-back lifestyle and is not too strict about morals. She is currently the lover of traveling salesman Howard Palmer, who sexually exploits her without offering her a permanent perspective. Eventually Palmer marries his boss's daughter. Desperate Ivy wants to commit suicide, but is saved at the last second by Carl Loomis, a member of the Salvation Army . Ivy, who wants to start a new life, is impressed by his friendly, courteous manner. A year later, Ivy, who is now working for the Salvation Army, and Howard Paler, who is having a boring marriage, meet again. Ivy promptly becomes his lover again. Many torments of conscience later, the young woman realizes that strengths of character and a moral way of life are much more important than the fleeting fulfillment of erotic desires. Carl and Ivy get married.
background
Joan Crawford had come to fame in the last days of silent film for portraying carefree young women then known as flappers . Profound changes in society were associated with the economic uncertainty in the wake of the global economic crisis . While musicals , revue films, and salon comedies depicting the problems of the Top Ten Thousands rapidly lost popularity, new genres such as horror films and gangster films established themselves . Increasingly, socially critical films were also produced that cast a concerned look at abuses in society. The changed taste of the audience meant that the role of flappers as a carefree young woman who understands life as a series of amusements without material worries quickly became a thing of the past. Against this background, from 1930 onwards, the studio transformed Joan Crawford's image into an ambitious woman who wants to improve her living conditions on her own. Therefore, at this point in her acting career, she often played working-class girls who make up the social ladder. The change first manifested itself in Our Blushing Brides , where Joan Crawford was a saleswoman. Using three friends as an example, the film raises the question of the extent to which moral standpoints and values such as virtue and integrity can endure in times of economic uncertainty. In addition, it shows how traditional moral concepts about marriage and sexuality must be available under the changed social conditions. This basic pattern was only slightly varied in the next few films.
In this context, the role in Laughing Sinners is in some respects rather untypical for the Crawford films of the time. For one, the heroine wants to commit suicide at the beginning. In a remarkable parallel, the scene anticipates a comparable shot at the beginning of Solange ein Herz Beats from 1945. Usually Joan Crawford played independent, courageous women who always face life and its confusions. Desperate acts of lovesickness were more part of the repertoire of other actresses. At the same time, Ivy does not manage to significantly improve her social position either. She starts out as a dance girl and remains a lower class member throughout the act. Normally, by mid-plot, Joan Crawford manages to acquire wealth in order to wear luxurious clothing and jewelry. The film also has two major vocal numbers for the lead actress: What Can I Do, I Love That Man, and Brighten the Corner Where You Are . Actress Marjorie Rambeau was supposed to play Joan Crawford's mother in This Modern Age , which went into production immediately afterwards, but fell ill shortly before filming began. In 1953 in Hearts in Fever , Rambeau was finally seen as a mother.
One of the few people who was completely satisfied with the film in the end was Joan Crawford, who told Roy Newquist:
“Laughing Sinners was good for me - I danced well, played well, and there was a crackle between Clark Gable, an aspiring actor at the time, and me, on screen and in private. One of my favourites."
Production history
Laughing Sinners had a complicated production history. The film first went under the title Complete Surrender and with John Mack Brown as Carl in the shooting. As was common at MGM at the time, the finished film was subjected to numerous previews . This procedure usually led to more or less large numbers of new and re-shoots of scenes. In the present case, the critics were so devastating that almost the entire film was shot from scratch. John Mack Brown, who had appeared in Our Dancing Daughters and Montana Moon alongside Crawford , but whose star was rapidly declining, was replaced by Clark Gable , who had worked with Crawford a few months earlier in the wrong ways of life .
Under Irving Thalberg as head of production, MGM was known for the practice of re-shooting entire parts of films if the pre-screenings did not generate a positive response. The production of Redemption , which was initially intended as a sound film debut by John Gilbert in 1929 , was brought back in front of the cameras after poor comments from the test viewers and almost all actors were exchanged with a new director. Prosperity , a Marie Dressler comedy from 1931, was also shot almost completely from scratch. Sometimes the studio went so far as not to distribute films that had already been completed if the quality did not meet the high MGM standards. In 1929/30, for example, two completely shot Marion Davies musicals were not released: The Five o 'Clock Girl and Rosalie . Sometimes filming was stopped in the middle of production, such as the Joan Crawford film Great Day .
Theatrical release
It ended up costing $ 338,000, which was roughly the average budget for a Crawford film from that period. At the box office, Laughing Sinners proved to be less popular and made less money than the actress's previous films at $ 624,000. With overseas revenues of $ 141,000 and a cumulative total result of just $ 765,000, the studio ended up making a comparatively meager $ 156,000.
Reviews
The New York Times limited its praise to the actress's external merits:
"Miss Crawford has seldom been so beautifully alive and so pretty to look at."
literature
- Roy Newquist (Ed.): Conversations with Joan Crawford . Citadel Press, Secaucus, NJ 1980, ISBN 0-8065-0720-9 .
- Lawrence J. Quirk : The Complete Films of Joan Crawford . Citadel Press, Secaucus, NJ 1988, ISBN 0-8065-1078-1 .
- Lawrence J. Quirk, William Schoell: Joan Crawford. The Essential Biography . University Press, Lexington, KY. 2002, ISBN 0-8131-2254-6 .
- Alexander Walker: Joan Crawford. The Ultimate Star . Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 1983, ISBN 0-297-78216-9 .
Web links
- Laughing Sinners in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Laughing Sinners at Turner Classic Movies (English)
- Background information
- Info and set photos