''Sin's Pay Day'' is a 1932 American
pre-Code
Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorshi ...
crime film
Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...
directed by
George B. Seitz
George Brackett Seitz (January 3, 1888 – July 8, 1944) was an American playwright, screenwriter, film actor and director. He was known for his screenplays for action serials, such as '' The Perils of Pauline'' (1914) and ''The Exploits o ...
and starring
Lloyd Whitlock
Lloyd Whitlock (January 2, 1891 – January 8, 1966) was a prolific American actor who began working during Hollywood's silent era. Born in 1891, he appeared in nearly 200 films between 1916 and 1949. Distinguished by his height and stature, he ...
,
Dorothy Revier
Dorothy Revier (born Doris Valerga; April 18, 1904 – November 19, 1993) was an American actress.
Early years
Born as Doris Valerga in San Francisco on April 18, 1904, Revier was one of five siblings of the famous Valerga performing fami ...
and
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule Jr.; other pseudonym Mickey Maguire; September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American actor. In a career spanning nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last surviving stars of the ...
.
It was produced on
Poverty Row
Poverty Row is a slang term used to refer to Hollywood films produced from the 1920s to the 1950s by small (and mostly short-lived) B movie studios. Although many of them were based on (or near) today's Gower Street in Hollywood, the term did n ...
as a
second feature
A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double featur ...
.
[Pitts p.242] It was later reissued under the
alternative title
An alternative title is a media sales device most prominently used in film distribution. Books and films are commonly released under a different title when they are screened or sold in a different country. This can vary from small change to the t ...
'' Slums of New York'' with advertising material devoting greater attention to
child actor
The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting on stage or in film, movies or television. An adult who began their acting career as a child may also be called a child actor, or a "former child actor". Closely associ ...
Rooney, who had since emerged as a star at
MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
.
Plot
Attorney Robert Webb makes a good living as a defense lawyer for gangsters. This disgusts his wife, who leaves him and goes to set up a charitable clinic. After getting a notorious mob leader acquitted on a technicality, Webb develops a conscience and turns to alcohol letting his practice collapse. Living on the streets, he is befriended by a boy who helps him gain his self-respect. When the boy is then killed by a bullet fired from a gangster's gun, Webb goes undercover to pose as a defense lawyer once more while secretly recording the incriminating conversation, which he turns over to the police. A reformed man, he and his wife reconcile.
Cast
*
Lloyd Whitlock
Lloyd Whitlock (January 2, 1891 – January 8, 1966) was a prolific American actor who began working during Hollywood's silent era. Born in 1891, he appeared in nearly 200 films between 1916 and 1949. Distinguished by his height and stature, he ...
as Robert Webb
*
Dorothy Revier
Dorothy Revier (born Doris Valerga; April 18, 1904 – November 19, 1993) was an American actress.
Early years
Born as Doris Valerga in San Francisco on April 18, 1904, Revier was one of five siblings of the famous Valerga performing fami ...
as Iris Markey
*
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney (born Joseph Yule Jr.; other pseudonym Mickey Maguire; September 23, 1920 – April 6, 2014) was an American actor. In a career spanning nine decades, he appeared in more than 300 films and was among the last surviving stars of the ...
as Chubby Dennis
*
Forrest Stanley
Forrest Stanley (August 21, 1889 – August 27, 1969) was an American actor and screenplay writer best known for his work in silent film. He is particularly known for his role as Charles Brandon in the historical film '' When Knighthood Was in ...
as James Markey
*
Bess Flowers
Bess Flowers (November 23, 1898 – July 28, 1984) was an American actress best known for her work as an extra in hundreds of films. She was known as "The Queen of the Hollywood Extras," appearing in more than 350 feature films and numerous ...
as Jane Webb
*
Hal Price
Harry Franklin "Hal" Price (June 24, 1886 – April 15, 1964) was an American film and stage actor. He appeared in more than 260 films between 1930 and 1952. He is the father of character actress and comedian Lu Leonard.
On stage, Price ...
as Jake Bernheim
*
Harry Semels
Harry Semels (November 20, 1887 – March 2, 1946) was an American film actor. He appeared in over 315 film between 1917 and 1946.
Career
Semels appeared in his first film in 1917. He began to achieve fame after arriving at Columbia Pictu ...
as Louie Joe
*
Paul Panzer
Paul Wolfgang Panzerbeiter (November 3, 1872 – August 16, 1958), known professionally as Paul Panzer, was a German-American silent film actor. He appeared in more than 330 films between 1905 and 1952.
Biography
Panzer was born in Würzburg. ...
as Derelict Drinking Milk
References
Bibliography
* Pitts, Michael R. ''Poverty Row Studios, 1929–1940: An Illustrated History of 55 Independent Film Companies, with a Filmography for Each''. McFarland & Company, 2005.
External links
*
1932 films
1932 crime films
American black-and-white films
Films directed by George B. Seitz
American crime films
Mayfair Pictures films
Films set in New York City
1930s English-language films
1930s American films
English-language crime films
{{1930s-crime-film-stub