This cannibalized version of Dostoyevsky's novel The Gambler under the masterful hand of Robert Siodmak moves mightily throughout before it collapsing under the sudden weight of heavy handed denouement.
Aspiring novelist Fejda (Gregory Peck) has a confident air about him as he boards a train that will take him to Paris. Sharing a compartment with Pauline Ostrovsky (Ava Gardner) he is soon bewitched by her and decides to stay in Wiesbarden to pursue her. Oststrovsky and her father both are addicted to gambling and their debts to a casino prevent her from leaving with Fejda. Fejda in the meantime develops an addiction and begins to spiral out of control.
Few if any film directors spoke cinema language as eloquently as the German born director Robert Siodmak. His noir cycle (especially Criss Cross, The Killers and Cry of the City ) are remarkable examples of form and content and while Sinner is not a noir it retains noir elements ideal to the downward thrust of the story line and its characters. In scene after scene Siodmak (ably assisted by distinguished cinematographer George Folsey) gives Sinner a healthy undercurrent of tension and suspense throughout with revealing compositions and startling close-ups. In one magnificent exposition shot Siodmak in under three minutes sums up the grandeur, the pitfalls, the types as well as the condescension of the self assured protagonist before the fall gracefully moving within the confines of the film's center stage, the casino.
The entire big name cast lives up to its billing though the leads are out shined by a sterling supporting group. Peck has some excellent mad scenes and Gardner's beauty is convincing enough in the early moments to persuade Fejda to pursue her but when she goes from bad to good (as she did in 55 days at Peking) she becomes less convincing. Melvyn Douglas, Walter Huston Frank Morgan, Ethel Barrymore and Agnes Moorehead (a pawnbroker whose shop is the setting for another Siodmak visual tour de force moment) are all in top form.
An intriguing side note to the performances are the way Siodmak (a Jew himself) portrays in a greedy and cynical light the films most obvious Jewish characters ( the pawnbroker and a vulture like jeweler, played unctuously by Curt Bois) four years after the end of World War Two. Suffice to say these characterizations today would have a hard time getting out of the editing room and when you combine the protagonist's Christian redemption (hokey but stunningly shot) Sinner finds itself somewhere between Judex and Maurice Chevalier's Gigi.
Still there is no denying the brilliant talent and command of the art form Siodmak possessed and in spite of its cop out ending The Great Sinner provides more than enough evidence to prove it.
Aspiring novelist Fejda (Gregory Peck) has a confident air about him as he boards a train that will take him to Paris. Sharing a compartment with Pauline Ostrovsky (Ava Gardner) he is soon bewitched by her and decides to stay in Wiesbarden to pursue her. Oststrovsky and her father both are addicted to gambling and their debts to a casino prevent her from leaving with Fejda. Fejda in the meantime develops an addiction and begins to spiral out of control.
Few if any film directors spoke cinema language as eloquently as the German born director Robert Siodmak. His noir cycle (especially Criss Cross, The Killers and Cry of the City ) are remarkable examples of form and content and while Sinner is not a noir it retains noir elements ideal to the downward thrust of the story line and its characters. In scene after scene Siodmak (ably assisted by distinguished cinematographer George Folsey) gives Sinner a healthy undercurrent of tension and suspense throughout with revealing compositions and startling close-ups. In one magnificent exposition shot Siodmak in under three minutes sums up the grandeur, the pitfalls, the types as well as the condescension of the self assured protagonist before the fall gracefully moving within the confines of the film's center stage, the casino.
The entire big name cast lives up to its billing though the leads are out shined by a sterling supporting group. Peck has some excellent mad scenes and Gardner's beauty is convincing enough in the early moments to persuade Fejda to pursue her but when she goes from bad to good (as she did in 55 days at Peking) she becomes less convincing. Melvyn Douglas, Walter Huston Frank Morgan, Ethel Barrymore and Agnes Moorehead (a pawnbroker whose shop is the setting for another Siodmak visual tour de force moment) are all in top form.
An intriguing side note to the performances are the way Siodmak (a Jew himself) portrays in a greedy and cynical light the films most obvious Jewish characters ( the pawnbroker and a vulture like jeweler, played unctuously by Curt Bois) four years after the end of World War Two. Suffice to say these characterizations today would have a hard time getting out of the editing room and when you combine the protagonist's Christian redemption (hokey but stunningly shot) Sinner finds itself somewhere between Judex and Maurice Chevalier's Gigi.
Still there is no denying the brilliant talent and command of the art form Siodmak possessed and in spite of its cop out ending The Great Sinner provides more than enough evidence to prove it.