Silly, illogical pre-Code romance that, if nothing else, shows Loretta Young off to good advantage. She's a small-town girl who plays church organ and is saddled with a dreadful mom, Elizabeth Patterson in a more substantial role than usual for this time, who turns out not to be her mom at all. She meets traveling salesman David Manners, who neglects to tell her he's engaged, and she follows him to New York, where she bunks with Una Merkel and is dismayed to discover the truth, though not dismayed enough to throw Manners over for his best friend, George Brent, who's crazy about her. She also ends up playing rehearsal piano for a show produced by Louis Calhern, whose intentions are not honorable. The things ends, mercifully soon, with the dying Calhern confessing on his deathbed that the thrashing he took wasn't Manners' fault (something this character would not do), and Young running off with Brent, even though she and Manners have spent the whole movie unable to keep their hands off each other. But we need a happy ending, so he trudges back to his wife, and we assume he'll be happy with her even though he's previously indicated he never could be, and Young is blissful with Brent even though she's told him she could never really love him. Many loose-hanging threads in this one.
Review of They Call It Sin
