Half a Sinner (1940)

This woman is so dingy in this film she irked me from the get-go. First of all the unwanted suitor just met her in the park where she was sitting - he wasn't a stalker, he was a man that just met her and trying to come on to her. Secondly, she steals a car to get away from said suitor and she's to dingy to realize that stealing a car makes her a thief and the cops will go after the stolen car. Third, she picks up a man she doesn't know long her way to really nowhere while getting away from the suitor. This man sees the dead body in the back of the car and we are now in for some lame comedy as the police are hot of the trail of the real criminals and a stolen car.I found this one a bore fest - trying to hard to be funny with a boring story to follow. I did not find anyone "cute" in this film just ewe.I got this film in the Dark Crimes 50-Film Pack and this is NOT a dark crime. It's a (so-called) comedy crime film - nothing that dark about it except riding around in a stolen car with a dead body. It's not film noir or anything close to that.2/10

That opening scene with the impish little boy writing punishment sentences on the blackboard is a charming hoot. The whole time he's muttering he will NOT be a good boy despite what he's writing. Monitoring him, teacher Anne (Angel) looks dowdy, I guess like a school teacher's supposed to look. She's been leading a respectable but repressed life, content it appears with the romantic margins. Then, one day, she drops her homely eye-lasses and goes shopping-- new dresses, stylish hats, flattering cosmetics-- and the make-over is complete. The conversion from gray moth to striking butterfly is also complete. But does she know what comes with the good looks that catch a man's eye. From now on it's a pack of trouble.Lively little madcap from Universal, thanks to the two leads, Angel and King. Their chemistry works as they try to outwit gang of crooks whose corpse-bearing car they've unfortunately stolen. Now both the crooks and cops are after them. Maybe Anne was better off making little boys write on blackboards. But then this is Hollywood and we know how such antics end, especially for such an attractive twosome. All in all, it's a fun way to spend an hour, maybe not Hepburn and Grant, but with their own B-movie brand of charm.

This movie has a number of things going for it, not the least of which is the fact that while it is not stingy on production values, it runs less than an hour. It's also one of a mere half-dozen features directed by super-prolific comedy shorts director, Al Christie. The ingratiating star, Heather Angel, acquits herself well, and there's no doubting the sincerity of a large support cast including John "Dusty" King, Constance Collier, Clem Bevans and Walter Catlett. Based on a reasonably amusing story by Dalton Trumbo, the screenplay certainly strains credulity, but it has enough amusing twists to keep us on our toes, and it never runs out of puff. Admittedly, Heather Angel makes an ideal distraction, but the other players prop up the screenplay admirably too. And for all its lack of pretentiousness, the thin story also breezes along at a praiseworthy pace, despite a plot housed with plentiful people, plus a playfully pleasant precociousness that makes DVD viewing a fervent pleasure.

Well hold on to your hats folks, I think even the Three Stooges might have had a hard time keeping up with Heather Angel in this feisty romp. Twenty five years old and getting older every day, her character Anne Gladden decides to live it up for a day and ends up in a stolen limousine with a dead body in the back seat. It's pretty incomprehensible for most of the story why a young man she picks up along the way gets involved in the escapade, but it's later revealed that the vehicle actually belongs to Larry Cameron (John King).If you're like me, you'll find yourself scratching your head over a number of scenes. Like society matron Mrs. Breckenridge - how is it she was holding a pet dog when a cop pulled her chauffeur over, but didn't have one earlier when she had tea with Anne at the filling station? And how about Cameron bringing Anne into his home - didn't it look like they stepped into a bright and shiny TV commercial for modern kitchen appliances of the day? But the best was the final scene when Anne brings Larry home to meet granny, and even though they're still at the front door, granny greets them from the comfort of her bed. Where exactly was that, in the living room?Yes, movie viewers, this one truly defies classification. Not exactly a murder mystery, and not exactly a comedy, but you'll probably think you've seen elements of both. It's certainly entertaining in an odd sort of way, but you'll have to leave your thinking cap at the door.