The movie "Virtuous Sin" (1930), starring Kay Francis and Walter Huston, was about a woman who buddied up to a general in order to save her husband from execution. The relationship between her and the general turned romantic, but it was for a good cause: hence it was a "virtuous sin."
That brings me to "Laughing Boy."
For nearly the first hour of this movie I didn't know why it had a bad IMDb rating. I suspected that it had a poor rating for the same reason that movies featuring blackface have good ratings, and I don't think I need to explain. "Laughing Boy" often negatively mentioned "white man" and the ways of white men. My thoughts were that a lot of white people took offense to the movie and, as a result, gave it a poor rating.
Initially, I liked the movie; firstly and foremostly because the cast was made up primarily of Indigenous People aka Native Americans. It was good to see them playing the parts of "Indians" instead of white people in dark paint.
Then the movie got towards the end, and that's when I found it utterly repulsive.
A Navajo man named Laughing Boy (Ramon Novarro) fell in love with and married a Navajo woman named Lily aka Slim Girl (Lupe Velez). Slim Girl was raised by and around white people, and she was attempting to reintroduce herself to her Navajo people; if they would accept her. Due to her upbringing she was unfamiliar with all of the Navajo customs. In spite of her strangeness and odd behavior, Laughing Boy married her.
Slim Girl had a major problem slaughtering goats, which was the duty of the Navajo women. It was so repulsive to her that she suggested to her husband that they separate from his family and have their own land, home, and farm. It was a good idea, but it was an idea that required money or something of value that could be traded. Slim Girl told Laughing Boy not to worry, she would do some trading to get the money.
This is where the movie went downhill in a hurry. Slim Girl went to town to trade her "goods" for money ("Virtuous Sin"). She had a sugar daddy in town that she could go to for cash. So, even though she was married, she would go to town every so often to hook up with an abusive white man because he had money. It was shameless and despicable.
What was going through her mind?
The indication was that she'd been corrupted by white culture.
I'm not buying that.
Eventually, Laughing Boy found out. He'd gone to town to look for her and was surprised to find his wife in the arms of another man. When he saw her frolicking with another man he pulled out his bow and arrow and shot her. He was aiming for the man (why I don't know, she was the one cheating), but missed him and hit her in the heart. As she lay dying she feebly explained why she'd done it and Laughing Boy lamented his actions and her death.
This was a silly ending to an otherwise good movie. I don't know a woman that would even contemplate whoring herself out while she's married, let alone actually going through with it just for some extra cash. It's not like they were starving or in need. Furthermore, I don't know a man that would immediately lament killing his wife if he found her in the arms of another man (and we know what the real implications were). If he did have regrets for killing his cheating wife, those regrets would probably be accompanied with some serious anger.
The bottom line is that they made Laughing Boy and Slim Girl too immature. They had the emotional maturity of toddlers. Slim Girl thought that bringing wealth home to her husband was paramount regardless of the how, and Laughing Boy processed his anger within the span of two seconds as though somebody can quickly shake off being betrayed. Relationships don't work like that and people don't work like that. Cheating for purposes other than cheap quick pleasure, is something most rational human beings consider long and hard before doing. Anger at being betrayed is something most human beings need much time to get over. Slim Girl gave it no consideration and Laughing Boy moved on from his anger in an instant.
"Laughing Boy" was too simplistic, shallow, and elementary. It lacked any kind of nuance, depth, or intelligence. It was not worth making and it's certainly not worth watching.
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