Women can't help but falling in love. They can't achieve a task that involves a man because their hearts will get in the way. That's what this movie has told us. This and "Office Wife" and "Dishonored" and so many other movies from the 30's. Women, especially if Kay Francis is playing the character, cannot help themselves around men.
Kay Francis is the worst when it comes to her roles. "Dangerous Curves," "Behind the Make-Up," "Transgression," "For the Defense," "The Scandal Sheet," "Ladies' Man," "Guilty Hands," "Street of Women," and "Jewel Robbery" are all examples of Kay Francis playing the adulteress, or the mistress.
"Virtuous Sin" takes place in Russia 1914 and Kay Francis plays Marya Ivanova Sablin. She passively married Victor Sablin (Kenneth MacKenna) though she didn't love him. She told him she didn't love him and that she'd never found love. He wanted to marry her anyway in hopes that one day she could learn to love him. Her whole "never found love" spiel was foreshadowing of the worst kind. If a man or woman EVER says they've never found love, then without a doubt they'll find love.
Marya and Victor were getting along fine until Victor was drafted. She went to beg General Gregori Platoff (Walter Huston) to release her husband from his duty because he was a great scientist working on something important. She got in maybe two words before he shut her--and all the other women whose husbands and sons were drafted--down.
Victor went to war and was made a lieutenant, but he continued to neglect his duties as a soldier. He was stripped of his rank and made to do menial tasks as punishment. One day he lost his head and went off on the general. For that he was sentenced to death. He was to remain in prison for a week before facing a firing squad.
When Marya heard the news she jumped into action. She would pretend to be a cabaret girl to get close to the general and try to influence him to change his mind about executing Victor. Her only real tool to accomplish this was her sexuality and female charm. She turned it on and it worked all too well. The general fell in love with her.
But here's the problem: she also fell in love with him.
Firstly, it didn't even make sense because the general was a ruthless brute. But I guess "ladies love brutes" (the title of a 1930 movie starring George Bancroft). If women aren't falling in love with charming, suave gentlemen they are falling in love with unrefined, unromantic, ogres who find it hard to say nice things (see "Virtue," "Office Wife," and "Beauty and the Boss" to name a few).
Secondly, Marya was turning on her sexuality as a tool to get what she needed, why did it have to be or become authentic? The same thing happened in "Dishonored" when Marlene Dietrich played an Austrian spy who fell in love with the enemy and even committed treason for him. Maybe Hollywood and audiences saw it as something romantic back then, but I see it as perpetuating a ridiculous stereotype. What we got back then were either women who wanted money, men, or both, and there was no limit on either. If there were two nice guys, she'd fall in love with both of them.
"The Virtuous Sin" was just another bad romance that employed the hated love triangle. And really, at this point in time, I think I watch Kay Francis movies just to find more reasons to hate her.
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Kay Francis is the worst when it comes to her roles. "Dangerous Curves," "Behind the Make-Up," "Transgression," "For the Defense," "The Scandal Sheet," "Ladies' Man," "Guilty Hands," "Street of Women," and "Jewel Robbery" are all examples of Kay Francis playing the adulteress, or the mistress.
"Virtuous Sin" takes place in Russia 1914 and Kay Francis plays Marya Ivanova Sablin. She passively married Victor Sablin (Kenneth MacKenna) though she didn't love him. She told him she didn't love him and that she'd never found love. He wanted to marry her anyway in hopes that one day she could learn to love him. Her whole "never found love" spiel was foreshadowing of the worst kind. If a man or woman EVER says they've never found love, then without a doubt they'll find love.
Marya and Victor were getting along fine until Victor was drafted. She went to beg General Gregori Platoff (Walter Huston) to release her husband from his duty because he was a great scientist working on something important. She got in maybe two words before he shut her--and all the other women whose husbands and sons were drafted--down.
Victor went to war and was made a lieutenant, but he continued to neglect his duties as a soldier. He was stripped of his rank and made to do menial tasks as punishment. One day he lost his head and went off on the general. For that he was sentenced to death. He was to remain in prison for a week before facing a firing squad.
When Marya heard the news she jumped into action. She would pretend to be a cabaret girl to get close to the general and try to influence him to change his mind about executing Victor. Her only real tool to accomplish this was her sexuality and female charm. She turned it on and it worked all too well. The general fell in love with her.
But here's the problem: she also fell in love with him.
Firstly, it didn't even make sense because the general was a ruthless brute. But I guess "ladies love brutes" (the title of a 1930 movie starring George Bancroft). If women aren't falling in love with charming, suave gentlemen they are falling in love with unrefined, unromantic, ogres who find it hard to say nice things (see "Virtue," "Office Wife," and "Beauty and the Boss" to name a few).
Secondly, Marya was turning on her sexuality as a tool to get what she needed, why did it have to be or become authentic? The same thing happened in "Dishonored" when Marlene Dietrich played an Austrian spy who fell in love with the enemy and even committed treason for him. Maybe Hollywood and audiences saw it as something romantic back then, but I see it as perpetuating a ridiculous stereotype. What we got back then were either women who wanted money, men, or both, and there was no limit on either. If there were two nice guys, she'd fall in love with both of them.
"The Virtuous Sin" was just another bad romance that employed the hated love triangle. And really, at this point in time, I think I watch Kay Francis movies just to find more reasons to hate her.
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