The Virtuous Sin
- October 24, 1930 (1930-10-24)
The Virtuous Sin is a 1930 American pre-Code comedy-drama film directed by George Cukor and Louis J. Gasnier and starring Walter Huston, Kay Francis, and Kenneth MacKenna. The screenplay by Martin Brown and Louise Long is based on the 1928 play The General by Lajos Zilahy. A separate 1931 German-language version The Night of Decision was shot at Paramount's Joinville Studios in Paris.
Plot
Marya is married to medical student Victor Sablin, who finds it impossible to deal with military life when he is inducted into the Russian army during World War I. When her husband is sentenced to death by firing squad due to his insubordination, Marya offers herself to General Gregori Platoff in order to save him. When the two unexpectedly fall in love, Victor — not caring that his life has been spared — threatens to kill his rival. His determination to eliminate the general falters when Marya confesses she is not in love with her husband — and never was.
Cast
- Walter Huston as Gen. Gregori Platoff
- Kay Francis as Marya Sablin
- Kenneth MacKenna as Victor Sablin
Critical reception
Mordaunt Hall of the New York Times called the film "a clever comedy with a splendid performance by Walter Huston" and added, "There is a constant fund of interest in this picture's action. It is one of those rare offerings in which youth takes a back seat.[1]
George Cukor's reflection in 1972
In the book On Cukor, director George Cukor confided to biographer Gavin Lambert: "It wasn't much good. I'd be in great shock if they [film restorationists & historians] rescued this one. I remember that I enjoyed working with Kay Francis and Walter Huston, though."[2]
Preservation status
A complete print of this film is held by the UCLA Film and Television Archive. However, the UCLA archive's website says the print is too shrunken for projection.[3]
See also
- The Rebel (1931)
References
External links
- The Virtuous Sin at IMDb
- v
- t
- e
- Grumpy (1930)
- The Virtuous Sin (1930)
- The Royal Family of Broadway (1930)
- Tarnished Lady (1931)
- Girls About Town (1931)
- What Price Hollywood? (1932)
- A Bill of Divorcement (1932)
- Rockabye (1932)
- Our Betters (1933)
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- Little Women (1933)
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- Camille (1936)
- Holiday (1938)
- Zaza (1939)
- The Women (1939)
- Susan and God (1940)
- The Philadelphia Story (1940)
- A Woman's Face (1941)
- Two-Faced Woman (1941)
- Her Cardboard Lover (1942)
- Keeper of the Flame (1943)
- Gaslight (1944)
- Winged Victory (1944)
- A Double Life (1947)
- Edward, My Son (1949)
- Adam's Rib (1949)
- A Life of Her Own (1950)
- Born Yesterday (1950)
- The Model and the Marriage Broker (1951)
- The Marrying Kind (1952)
- Pat and Mike (1952)
- The Actress (1953)
- It Should Happen to You (1954)
- A Star Is Born (1954)
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- Les Girls (1957)
- Wild Is the Wind (1957)
- Heller in Pink Tights (1960)
- Let's Make Love (1960)
- Something's Got to Give (1962)
- The Chapman Report (1962)
- My Fair Lady (1964)
- Justine (1969)
- Travels with My Aunt (1972)
- Love Among the Ruins (1975)
- The Blue Bird (1976)
- The Corn is Green (1979)
- Rich and Famous (1981)