My Sin (1931)
Director:
George Abbott
Writers:
George Abbott (adaptation), Owen Davis (screenplay)
Stars:
Tallulah Bankhead, Fredric March, Harry Davenport
In all three of her 1931-32 movie vehicles, Tallulah Bankhead played variations of that familiar soap opera standby, the Fallen Woman. My Sin casts Bankhead as a college-educated nightclub entertainer named Carlotta, working in a seedy dive in Panama. Tormented by her blackmailing husband, she shoots and kills the bounder then finds that no self-respecting attorney will take her case. Fortunately for her, alcoholic lawyer Dick Grady (Fredric March) has no respect for himself, and it is he who agrees to defend her in court. Acquitted of murder, Carlotta heads to New York to start life anew, only to have her unsavory past catch up with her again. Once more, however, she is rescued by Grady, who has sworn off booze and metamorphosed into a pillar of society.