Sin Takes a Holiday *** (1930, Constance Bennett, Kenneth MacKenna, Basil Rathbone) – Classic Movie Review 11,271

Director Paul L Stein’s 1930 American pre-Code romantic comedy Sin Takes a Holiday stars Constance Bennett, Kenneth MacKenna and Basil Rathbone in brightly played performances. The fairly witty screenplay by Horace Jackson is based on a story by Robert Milton and Dorothy Cairns.

Constance Bennett stars as plain secretary Sylvia Brenner, who works for womanising divorce attorney Gaylord Stanton (Kenneth MacKenna), who dates only married women. She agrees to his business proposal to provide her with financial remuneration if she marries him in name only.

Gaylord sends Sylvia off to Paris, where she has a serious makeover and meets her boss’s old friend, Reggie Durant (Basil Rathbone), who falls in love with her.

It was produced by Pathé Exchange and released in 1930, but became part of the package when RKO Pictures acquired Pathé that year, and RKO re-released it in 1931.

On its first release, it recorded a loss of $40,000 but the re-release probably took it into profit. Budget $450,000, box office $623,000, and still made a loss.

Basil Rathbone and Constance Bennett in Sin Takes a Holiday.

The cast are Constance Bennett as Sylvia Brenner, Kenneth MacKenna as Gaylord Stanton, Basil Rathbone as Reggie Durant, Rita La Roy as Grace Lawrence, Louis John Bartels as Richards, John Roche as Sheridan, Zasu Pitts as Annie, Kendall Lee as Miss Munson, Murrell Finley as Ruth, Helen Johnson as Miss Graham, and Fred Walton as the butler..

Running time: 75 minutes.

The film entered the public domain in the US in 1958 as the copyright registration was not renewed.

Here is the full film:

https://archive.org/details/SinTakesAHoliday

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,271

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