This is a highly predictable story, which makes for a half-interesting film.
It is almost as if the first scene between the main characters was already announcing everything that will take place. Doris and Jimmy love each other but he thinks they can marry without money, while she does not - and she does not trust him to be ambitious enough. As happens in Hollywood and not that often in real life, they are both soon offered occasions to climb up many steps at once through encounters with do-nothing millionaires - though Jimmy gets the better lot of the two as he is asked to marry, while Doris is not and finds herself relegated to the role of a half-official mistress. But in fact this difference is not that important - it would not be a real spoiler to tell how it all ends as anybody can guess it easily. Let us just say - in an elevator, as this is one of the amusing ideas in a film which manages to have a few ones, and occasionally crisp dialogues. These are the only times when Carole Lombard, who moreover is most of the time covered by heavy make-up making her look cheap, can really shine her true self and her abilities; at other times the film makes attempts, artificially and rather unsuccessfully, at a more melodramatic tone and she is visibly less at ease.
Review of Sinners in the Sun
