My Sin

Fans of director George Abbott and of Tallulah Bankhead should want to see My Sin which was shot at Paramount's Astoria Studios in New York and which George Abbott must have directed in his spare time when matinees of his Broadway work were not played. This is one of Paramount's efforts to make Tallulah Bankhead a film star. But they never quite succeeded.

Fredric March was Bankhead's male lead and both play down and outers living in the Panama Canal Zone. March a drunken and dissolute former attorney and Bankhead a dissolute cabaret singer kills a man who was robbing and beating on her. March gets her off and it's the first step toward rehabilitation for both of them.

This pre-code melodrama is way too old fashioned to be remade today. It creaked even in 1931. One thing I will say that the film does note, that woman have it rougher on the comeback trail than men. True today as well.

It helps to love Tallulah.