Tag Archives: kenneth mackenna

Cinematheque Live, Film Collector's Club, Home, Pre Code Films

Sensation Hunters (1933)

Leave a comment

Pre Code Logo 1

Pre Code Hollywood Season: FD Cinematheque

Sensation Hunters (1933)

Sensation Hunters 3

Director: Charles Vidor

Cast: Arline Judge, Preston Foster, Marion Burns, Kenneth MacKenna, Juanita Hansen, Creighton Hale, Cyril Chadwick, Nella Walker, Harold Minjir, Finis Barton, Zoila Conan

73 min

Sensation Hunters 6

Sensation Hunters is a 1933 American Pre-Code B-movie directed by Charles Vidor and released by Monogram Pictures.

Plot

Dale Jordon is on her way to Panama with Trixie Snell and Her Hotcha Girls to be a cabaret singer at the Bull Ring Cafe. Traveling by ship, Dale meets and falls in love with Tom Baylor, who owns copper interests near Panama. Baylor is concerned about Dale and they quarrel after he asks her to promise not to start drinking. Baylor sends Dale a bracelet with a note saying that they should part.

Sensation Hunters 11.jpg

After three months, Dale, who is rooming with friend and fellow singer Jerry Royal, is tired and frustrated with her job. She attracts the attention of a wealthy flier, Jimmy Crosby, who wants a more permanent relationship, but Dale is still in love with Baylor and refuses. After a fight with Trixie, Dale asks Crosby to take her away and promises to marry him. Crosby agrees and Dale spends her savings on a hotel room and clothes.

Sensation Hunters 13

Baylor returns to Panama and, meeting Dale in the hotel lobby, assumes that she is Crosby’s mistress. Dale, angered by his assumption, pretends it is true and Baylor leaves for San Francisco. Before they can leave for New York, Crosby makes a last test run. His wife has refused to give him a divorce to marry Dale, and, distraught, he commits suicide in a plane crash.

Trixie refuses to give Dale her old job back and also fires Jerry when she tries to intercede. The girls go to work in a seedy saloon to earn enough money for passage home. They almost have enough when Jerry is stabbed in a barfight. Dale spends all their money for Jerry’s medical expenses but still desperately short, prepares to become a prostitute; instead, Baylor arrives, summoned by a telegram from Jerry, and he and Dale reconcile.

Sensation Hunters 12

Cast

Sensation Hunters 10

Soundtrack

  • Arline Judge and chorus – “If It Ain’t One Man” (Written by Bernie Grossman and Harold Lewis)
  • Marion Burns – “There’s Something In the Air” (Written by Bernie Grossman and Harold Lewis)

Sensation Hunters 4

Sensation Hunters 8

Sensation Hunters 5

Sensation Hunters 9

Sensation Hunters 7

Film Collectors Corner

Watch Sensation Hunters Now – Instant Video on You Tube

Blu Ray

Not released on Blu Ray

 

DVD

Cinematheque Live, Film Collector's Club, Home, Pre Code Films

Virtuous Sin, The (1930)

1 Comment

Pre Code Logo 1

Pre Code Hollywood Season: FD Cinematheque

The Virtuous Sin (1930)

 

Virtuous Sin The 2

Virtuous Sin The 4

Virtuous Sin The 5

Virtuous Sin The 3

Virtuous Sin The 13

Director: George Cukor, Louis J Gasnier

Cast: Walter Huston, Kay Francis, Kenneth MacKenna, Jobyna Howland, Paul Cavanagh, Eric Kalkhurst, Oscar Apfel, Gordon McLeod, Victor Potel

80 min

The Virtuous Sin is a 1930 American Pre-Code comedy-drama film directed by George Cukor and Louis J. Gasnier. The screenplay by Martin Brown and Louise Long is based on the play The General by Lajos Zilahy.

Plot

Marya is the wife of medical student Victor Sablin, who finds it impossible to deal with military life when he is inducted into the Russian army during World War I. With her husband is sentenced to death by firing squad due to his insubordination, Marya offers herself to General Gregori Platoff in order to save him. When the two unexpectedly fall in love, Victor — not caring that his life has been spared — threatens to kill his rival. His determination to eliminate the general falters when Marya confesses she is not in love with her husband — and never was.

Virtuous Sin The 7

Cast

Virtuous Sin The 10

Critical reception

Mordaunt Hall of the New York Times called the film “a clever comedy with a splendid performance by Walter Huston” and added, “There is a constant fund of interest in this picture’s action. It is one of those rare offerings in which youth takes a back seat.[1]

Virtuous Sin The 11

George Cukor’s reflection in 1972

In the book On Cukor, director George Cukor confided to biographer Gavin Lambert: “It wasn’t much good. I’d be in great shock if they [film restorationists & historians] rescued this one. I remember that I enjoyed working with Kay Francis and Walter Huston, though.”[2]

Virtuous Sin The 9

Preservation status

A complete print of this film is held by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. However, the UCLA archive’s website says the print is too shrunken for projection.[3]

Virtuous Sin The 10

See also

Virtuous Sin The 12

References

  1. Jump up^ “Review”, The New York Times.
  2. Jump up^ Parish, James Robert; Mank, Gregory W.; Stanke, Don E. (1978), The Hollywood Beauties, New Rochelle, New York: Arlington House Publishers, p. 73, ISBN 0-87000-412-3
  3. Jump up^ UCLA Film and Television Archive website

Virtuous Sin The 1

Film Collectors Corner

Watch The Virtuous Sin Now – Instant Video on Internet Archive

 

Blu Ray

Not released on Blu Ray

 

DVD

Not released on DVD