The Great Sinner

This little-known gem is well worth checking. The fantastic script by Christopher Asherwood (one of the enfants terribles of the english literature of the 20th century) has some of the finest and memorable lines of the classic cinema. Ava Gardner never been so gorgeous. One cannot help feeling disturbed as the events go on, and the film is somehow unusual for the time for its moral and the pessimism it portraits. Definetely, Robert Siodmark's best. The allegorical final scene surely added by the studio is a real pity. After all we've seen, one can hardly find any hope in that universe, with or without the interceeding of God.

The people who are raking this little gem over the coals must either 1) not really like movies; 2) have seen the film on a bad videotape; or if we want to be generous, 3) be having a bad day.

I just came from a screening of a beautiful 35mm print, and I loved it! LOVED IT! Granted, the Christian allegory is laid on a bit thick at times, but the performances are wonderful, and the story will resonate with anyone mature enough to have grappled with his/her own dark side. It's a story of sacrifice and redemption, truly a battle writ large between good and evil.

I also highly suspect that Jacques Demy's BAY OF ANGELS (1963) is an homage to this film. Both use the casino as an apt metaphor for Hell, and in both films, characters are saved by love.

Siodmak is one of the great, underrated filmmakers of the 1940s, and while I don't like this film quite as much as his films noirs (The Killers, Criss-Cross) or his other masterful period drama, The Spiral Staircase, I do think The Great Sinner will satisfy anyone who appreciates the classical Hollywood style.

As Kirk Douglas's career was progressing nicely he had a choice of two different offers. He could play the title role in The Great Sinner, a big MGM film with a supporting cast of name players with Ava Gardner as a leading lady. Or he could do a small independent film for Stanley Kramer who was just starting out. Douglas chose the small film and wound up with an Oscar nomination for Champion.

Which left Gregory Peck who was apparently a second choice to play the Russian writer who stops off at the gambling resort of Wiesbaden in the 1860s just before German unification. He's on his way to Paris, but one sight of Ava Gardner getting off at Wiesbaden, makes Peck decide to abruptly change his plans.

As for Ava, certainly one can understand that she's beautiful enough to let one's hormones take over, but I got the feeling Ava just wasn't into the part really, as Greg was also not. It's also hard to believe that Walter Huston had won an Oscar for his previous film, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. To overcome a trite story, Huston overacts outrageously, pulling everything out of a ham's bag of tricks.

Even Melvyn Douglas as the scheming casino owner takes his nineteenth century villainy from the Snidely Whiplash tradition. Agnes Moorehead as the old crone of a pawnbroker also indulges in some scenery chewing, her best example of that since Dark Passage.

Best in the film in my humble opinion is Frank Morgan as the former mathematics professor and now addicted gambler. He brings a real aura of tragedy to his small role.

The Great Sinner is a sluggishly paced film with a lot of very talented people just going through the motions. For a gambling story, I'll take Casino.

Don't believe me, Wanna bet?

Even when he adapts Dostoievski,Robert Siodmak's fondness for film noir can be felt.In the first scene,when Fedor meets Pauline ,how not to think of that scene in "the killers" when Swede sees Kitty for the first time?In both films ,Ava Gardner is the femme fatale.Ditto for the last scene in the pawn shop where you can see the reflections of the crosses on the ceiling.

Fedor's motive is first love ,but little by little,he realizes he is actually in love with gambling,with the numbers.His desire for an "8 " is almost sexual;in the hotel,every number (the key number, etc) calls him to the casino.The depiction of the place where people are feverishly waiting for the stopping of the roulette is absolutely extraordinary.Gregory Peck gives a riveting performance as the gambler down on his luck,and Ava Gardner's beauty shines all along the film.The supporting cast is up to scratch: Melvyn Douglas is like a puppeteer (the scene when he pretends he can't find Ostrovsky's notes belongs to him); Frank Morgan as a fallen mathematic teacher and Agnes Moorehead as the owner of a seedy pawn shop make all their scenes count.Ethel Barrymore is so talented an actress she does not need any words (except "banco" ) to express her gambling fever.

Like this ?try these.....

"Le Joueur" Claude Autant-Lara 1958 another Dostoievski adaptation,inferior to Siodmak's version.

"lo scopone scientifico" Luigi Comencini 1972

"La dame de Pique" Leonard Keigel 1965

Well, if it has Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Melvyn Douglas, Walter Huston, Ethel Barrymore, Frank Morgan, and Agnes Moorehead, I'm there. But the fact is, this costume epic aims for the grandeur and tragedy of 19th century European literature without laying the groundwork. It's a listlessly plotted gambling melodrama, with Noble Writer Peck succumbing to the charms of Gambling Lady Gardner (and she was never more luscious), then reversing roles with her as he becomes addicted to the roulette wheel and she comes to her senses. Some lively bitch-dialogue from Christopher Isherwood helps, and the starry supporting cast contributes incisive miniatures; Barrymore, who pops in 90 minutes into the running time, is a special hoot, subtler and less grand than usual. But as so often happens in late-'40s Hollywood, the production values are stultifying, and a God-will-provide fadeout is tacked on to provide Moral Redemption where there logically should be none. It's a painless two hours, and good for stargazing -- but hardly the serious look at a decadent aristocracy it might have been.