Seven Sinners
1936
- Release Year
- 1936
- Director
- Albert de Courville
- Screenwriters
- Frank LaunderSidney Gilliat
Synopsis
Detective Harwood (Lowe) is attending the carnival at Nice. Harwood, dressed in a Devil's costume, is sitting on the floor outside his hotel room. His tail has become stuck in the door and he cannot get up or open the door. A passing reveler dressed in a carnival costume with a large bald costume head opens the door and frees him.
Later, a drunken Harwood, returning to his room, mistakenly enters the wrong room. He finds the costumed reveler, murdered. Harwood removes the head to find a middle aged man with a large beard. Harwood brings a policeman to the room, but the dead man has been removed.
A detective from the insurance agency will be working with Harwood. He is surprised to meet Caryl Fenton (Cummings), a pretty, young female detective. The detectives board the train to London. Alteration of the signal lights along the tracks causes the train to crash. Harwood and Fenton are uninjured. Harwood finds a dead man in the wreckage, the same bearded man who was dead in Nice.
Their investigation of the deceased connects him to the 'Pilgrims of Peace', a 'charitable' group of prominent people who operate 'peace' ships which carry needed goods to impoverished peoples.
The detectives learn that the so-called 'peace' ships are operated by enemy countries and are transporting military munitions to the enemies of England and France.
Train wrecks are used to cover the assassinations of enemies of the 'Pilgrims of Peace', including individuals in the group who are considered weaklings. As the detectives close in, the unknown leader of the Pilgrims carries out a final wreck to kill those Pilgrims who know his identity. He intends to kill the detectives too.
Harwood recognizes that a wreck is about to occur and gets Fenton and himself off the train but is too late the save the ill-fated Pilgrims. Harwood realizes that the prominent policeman, Paul Turbe (Bourdelle), who has been leading the investigation in France, has utilized his knowledge about the wrecks to escape them. Concluding that Turbe is the leader of the Pilgrims, Harwood has him arrested.
Discussion
A low budget film intended for the second place on a theater film program during the double feature days of film presentation. Edmund Lowe was the star of many similar films during the thirties and into the forties.
Despite the destructive and murderous consequences of the train wrecks featured in the plot, the overall mood of the film is lightly humorous, focusing on the amorous relationship of the detectives and the good humor and joking personality of Harwood, as portrayed by Edmund Lowe. The villains are very serious and murderous, but they do not overawe the lightness of the central pair. Wrecking trains to cover up murders seems excessive, but the wrecks are mostly done with models and the injured are not shown.
Edmund Lowe was a solid actor, better at lighter parts, lacking the depth for serious roles. A dashing leading man, he was smooth talking and suave, adventurous and energetic. He was probably not handsome enough to become a major star.
Constance Cummings entered films in 1931 playing juvenile roles. In 1932 she made eight films, including American Madness with Walter Huston and Pat O'Brien, directed by Frank Capra; Movie Crazy starring Harold Lloyd, and Night After Night, the debut film of Mae West. In 1933, Cummings was in five films and three more in 1934.
In 1936 Lowe and Cummings made Seven Sinners during a sojourn in England. Lowe soon returned to Hollywood, but Cummings remained in England with her husband, English dramatist Ben Levy. In contrast to her busy film career in Hollywood, Cummings' English acting favored live drama in which she had a highly successful career, including playing Shakespeare. She worked with Lawrence Olivier at the National Theatre in London.
In 1974, after forty years on the British stage, Cummings received the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire), in addition to being on the Queen's New Year's Honor List for Services to Drama.
In 1979 she won a Tony Award for Best Actress in the intense drama 'Wings' in which she plays an aviatrix who suffers a stroke and has to relearn basic life functions including the ability to talk.