Watch The Sin of Nora Moran For Free

Good start, but then it gets ruined

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Although this film plainly avails itself of the relaxed censorship available to pre-Code Hollywood, it's quite unlike anything else from that era; its most obvious pre-Code hallmark being the astonishing amount it manages to pack into just over an hour's running time. Long before the end, your head is spinning from the film's unending assault on your senses; and critics at the time just didn't get it (not helped by the catchpenny title derived from 'The Sin of Madelon Claudet', for which Helen Hayes had recently received an Oscar). Mordaunt Hall of 'The New York Times', for one, dismissed it simply as "all very muddled and parts of it are apt to be exceedingly depressing." He also claimed that it "strives to emulate the "narratage" story treatment as it was done in 'The Power and the Glory'". Since production of 'The Sin of Nora Moran' wrapped at the end of June 1933 while William K. Howard's 'The Power of the Glory' (often stated to have inspired the non-linear structure of 'Citizen Kane') opened in August, this has to have been simple coincidence; and 'The Sin of Nora Moran' goes way, way beyond Howard's more celebrated film in its use of the form. To Hall, 'Nora Moran' was just "a bewildering mass of scenes", but seen today it's perfectly easy to follow; you just never know what new technical flourish the extraordinary hybrid of narrative and visual elements past, present and future this film is going to next throw in your face.Polish-born independent producer-director Phil Goldstone (1893-1963) was a silent film veteran and former president of Tiffany Pictures who had recently acquired the poverty row outfit Majestic Pictures with the intention of upgrading its product. 'The Sin of Nora Moran' was the first of only two talkies he directed (the other being a 1937 version of that old exploitation warhorse, Eugène Brieux's 'Damaged Goods'); which makes his mastery of the new medium all the more remarkable, aided by Ira Morgan's Germanic photography and editing by Otis Garrett (later a director himself) that makes Eisenstein look like Mizoguchi. (An uncredited Heinz Roemheld contributes an energetic score that never lets up for a moment; adding to the film's continental feel.) The film completed, Goldstone continued to demonstrate his commitment to this labour of love by commissioning a sophisticated poster from Alberto Vargas that is better known today than the film itself.The most surprising thing about this film is that it's not a remake of a European original; since it certainly feels like one. It was actually based on a play by newspaperman Willis Maxwell Goodhue (who died in 1938) originally titled 'Burnt Offering'; and as befits the title, the script at one point goes into remarkably graphic detail about the process of execution in the electric chair. Nora is injected with an "opiate" (the word used) to prepare her for the end; which paves the way for the hallucinatory stream of consciousness that follows. Sometimes it feels like a German silent kammerspielfilm, at others like forties 'film noir' and still others like a wide range of art cinema yet to come (including late Dreyer and early Bergman, Resnais and Oshima). The nearest equivalent I've hitherto come across to the remarkable associational non-linear structure of this film - constantly jumping between times, places and viewpoints - is in another neglected masterpiece (from Japan of all places!) Keisuke Kinoshita's 'Snow Flurry' (1959).Dark-eyed Zita Johann, whose short-lived film career was nearing its end when she made this film, looks haunted as only she could in the demanding title role; while Alan Dinehart is given rather more to get his teeth into, and a somewhat more nuanced characterisation than he was usually accustomed to.Highly recommended.

Based on a stage play entitled "Burnt Offering" by newspaperman turned press agent (for Webber and Fields, Chauncey Olcott and many others), W. Maxwell Goodhue, this is, to say the least, an amazing film noir. Its complex narrative structure anticipates many of the famous classics including Citizen Kane. Nor is the direction by Phil Goldstone (a "B" movie producer who directed only two sound movies of which this is the first) in any way lacking. In fact, it's very inventive, as is the darkly noirish cinematography of Ira H. Morgan (who co-photographed the fabulously spectacular "When Knighthood Was in Flower" in 1922 but whose career declined in the sound period where, except for an occasional "A" like Chaplin's Modern Times, he worked almost exclusively in Poverty Row. He managed to chalk up over 200 credits in all before his death in 1979). The acting too is highly creditable, particularly by Zita Johann in the title role, John Miljan as one of the most repulsive villains ever seen in a movie, Claire Du Brey as the self-centered, antagonistic Mrs. Crawford, and Paul Cavanaugh as the charming but disappointingly weak-willed governor. The only not-so-hot performance is offered by the normally thoroughly professional Alan Dinehart who seems unsure how to play his role. As a result, he simply rattles off his lines and is often unconvincing. In all, however, The Sin of Nora Moran is a must-see item for every film noir fan. Available on an excellent Alpha DVD.

Here is a decent film from Majestic Pictures from 1933. Zita Johann plays a girl in desperate circumstances who gets embroiled in a murder. The structure of this film is quite unique for it's genre. The direction by Phil Goldstone and the performances are excellent. Many offbeat touches are present and there is a decent music score, rare for a little poverty row production like this. Films like this make me appreciative of the little studios that put these out. This probably played small houses or the bottom half of a double bill. It really is well done and the brief running time (just over an hour) goes by pretty quickly. The print I saw running on YouTube was decent, with good picture and sound. The clever montages and effects really add to the enjoyment of this film.

This film is a great surprise. Apart from being thematically unusual (murder, suicide, corruption, capital punishment, rape, etc) it is visually astonishing and years ahead of its time, anticipating lots of stuff from 40's film noir to art-house European cinema (Bergman's Wild Strawberries for instance).The film uses the `narratage' technique first used the same year by Preston Sturges in `The Power and the Glory' (also a very interesting film, directed by William K. Howard and a clear precedent of `Citizen Kane') which consists of voice-over narration and flashbacks and flashforwards, but if takes it much further with a very complex structure that includes flashbacks within flashbacks, dreams, hallucinations, flashforwards and characters appearing in scenes where they were not originally present and commenting the action with the main character.The film is also extraordinarily shot with quasi expressionistic photography, lots of tracking shots, montages and very imaginative use of stock footage. To make all this even more admirable the film was produced on a very low B budget and it runs only 65 minutes.