Antonius Block Quite short even for the time period at 60 minutes, this film is notable only for being James Cagney's film debut, and for being the first of seven that paired him with Joan Blondell. The film titillates us early on with pre-Code naughtiness; for example, a penny arcade game, "Hit The Bull, Up She Goes", which has a woman seated next to a bulls-eye that, when hit with a ball, causes her to flip 90 degrees upwards and reveal her legs. Another is seeing a bathing outfit on leggy Evalyn Knapp that would fit right in in 2016. Unfortunately, the story is pretty simple and the film is marred by poor acting, most notably by lead Grant Withers, who's hard to watch. Even Cagney is uncharacteristically off in his performance. The only exception is Blondell, 24 years old and in her second film role, appearing as a tough-talking brunette, who steals every scene she's in.

davidjanuzbrown Obviously the main reason to watch this movie is the fact it is James Cagney's (Harry) first film. It is also the first film of Joan Blondell (Myrtle), and Evalyn Knapp's (Jeannie) fist feature (she did shorts prior to this). I found Myrtle to be the most interesting character. Not only did she NOT look like Blondell (dark hair), but she was nasty gold digging prostitute (a character I NEVER saw from her before), and she even lost the in looks department to Jeannie. The main character is Ma Delano (Lucille LaVerne) who runs a Coney Island Arcade with her kids Harry, Jeannie and Joe. This woman is a real piece of work, she basically smothers Harry (almost borderline incest when they kiss on the lips) and basically neglects Jeannie and Joe. Spoilers ahead: Harry who is basically weak and pathetic, gets involved with the bootlegging business (that his mother hates), and rips off gangster Mitch (Warren Hymer), and murders him. Myrtle is his alibi and lets his mother exactly what happened, and that basically she will be running things from now on. Harry breaks down like a baby and his mother frames Angel Harrigan (Grant Withers) for the crime. The problem is Jeannie saw the murder and is sweet on Angel. She tells the police (very reluctantly) what happened and Harry confesses. The final scene is very revealing Joe starts to take her away, but she sees a big crowd (and of course lots of $$$$$$$$$), and she puts Angel (who she never liked) in charge. I can understand her being angry at Jeannie, for ratting out Harry, but did not let her Good Son Joe run things either. Is this a perfect movie? Not at all. But Cagney, LaVerne and especially Blondell make it work. 8/10 Stars

Michael_Elliott Sinner's Holiday (1930) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Somewhat interesting drama about a small time crook (James Cagney) who kills a man in self defense but let's his sister's boyfriend (Grant Withers) take the blame. The most interesting aspect of this film is the fact that it was Cagney and Joan Blondell's screen debut. The film takes place inside Coney Island, which is another interesting thing to see. Other than that this early talkie is like many others of its day. There's way too much talking and none of it is very interesting. The direction is also pretty weak and there's just not too much life in the story. The relationship between Cagney and his mother played by Lucille LaVerne is also very strange in an incest type of way.

bkoganbing A flop Broadway show, Penny Arcade, served as the vehicle for the joint debuts of James Cagney and Joan Blondell on the big screen. Both Cagney and Blondell repeat the roles they played on Broadway and both received a lot more notice than nominal stars Grant Withers and Evelyn Knapp.Penny Arcade only ran for 24 performances on Broadway, no doubt the Depression played a part in closing it as it did many shows that season. Retitling it Sinner's Holiday, the film is about the Delano family who run an amusement concession in Coney Island. Lucille LaVerne is the tough minded mother and she's got daughter Knapp and sons Cagney and Ray Gallagher working for her. She's a tyrannical old woman, who's determined to see that none of her kids get into the illegal booze business for the quick money. Unfortunately Cagney's involved up to his eyeballs with another concession owner, Warren Hymer, whose place is used as a front for the sale and transportation of illegal whiskey. Cagney and Hymer quarrel and Cagney shoots Hymer dead.LaVerne is quite willing to see petty drifter Grant Withers take the fall for her son even though Knapp's falling for him. She holds out that Knapp can do better for herself, like this crowd of Carnies ever could.Cagney's screen presence overawes the rest of the cast with the possible exception of Blondell who provides Cagney with an alibi for the shooting. You can easily tell who was heading for stardom in this bunch.Grant Withers at the time was a promising leading man who was married around this time to Loretta Young, ever so briefly. He had a lot of substance abuse problems and faded gradually into supporting parts. John Ford used him occasionally as he got older and John Wayne always found work for him in several of his films. Cagney was still in support of Withers the following year in Other Men's Women, but in 1954 Withers had a supporting part as an outlaw leader in Cagney's western, Run For Cover. Withers committed suicide in 1959.Sinner's Holiday is an entertaining enough film, but it really could have been a classic if Cagney had played Withers's role. William Wellman eventually remedied that in Public Enemy.