Once a Sinner
Release date: 1950-07-01
Votes: 4
Genres: Drama
Impoverished British bank clerk John Ross is hopelessly in love with drop-dead gorgeous Irene James. Ross will do anything to win Irene's affections - including embezzlement. She ends up marrying him, but she can't give up her true love, slimy counterfeiter Jimmy Smart...
Reviews
John Chard
The Reformatory Girl. There is very little known and written about as regards Lewis Gilbert's Once a Sinner. It's one of those British "B" noir productions that hasn't been readily available to Brit Noir completists. Thankfully some stalwart noir peeps have kept it topical via internet forums and it does have an official DVD release now. Once a Sinner is very British. The backdrop is quintessentially of the British period, a place of terrace houses, smoky public houses and working class citizens trawling the wet streets that are dimly lit by bulbous lamps. The dialect and delivery is also very correct in the British mannerisms of the time, and crucially the class divide and society's reaction to our main character is born out by the film makers. Adapted to the screen by David Evans from the novel "Irene" written by Ronald Marsh, it's a film dealing with a girl from the wrong side of the tracks who steals the heart of a well to do man and subsequently flips his life upside down. Peer and parental pressure snobbery is abound as Irene James (Pat Kirkwood) and John Ross (Jack Watling) try to battle through the emotional maze pitched in front of them. But with a crooked ex-lover (the wonderful Sydney Tafler) refusing to go away, Irene's chances of finally making a go of life seems remote. For the most part the pace is slow and the picture is very dialogue heavy. Ronald Binge's musical score also confuses the issue of just what type of film this wants to be, it's all very breezy and akin to one of those lovely old Ealing comedies that were made with some wry social commentaries. That is until the last quarter is reached and the piece moves onto a different plane... Gilbert and cinematographer Frank North introduce ominous visuals as Binge's music becomes more sinister in tone. It is here where Once a Sinner earns its noir badge, the narrative becomes devil like and the pay off is straight out of noirville. It's most assuredly a fitting reward for those having the patience to stay with Gilbert's movie during the more laborious passages. 6.5/10
Movie Recommendation
Zero Effect1998-01-30Daryl Zero is a private investigator and—along with his assistant, Steve Arlo—he solves impossible crimes and puzzles. Although Daryl's a master investigator, he doesn't know what to do with himself when he's not working; he has no social skills, writes bad music and drives Steve crazy.More...
Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster1964-12-20After a meteorite unleashes a three-headed beast upon Tokyo, Mothra tries to unite with Godzilla and Rodan to battle the extraterrestrial threat.More...
Bus Stop1956-08-31Cowboys Beauregard Decker and Virgil Blessing attend a rodeo in Phoenix, where Decker falls in love with beautiful cafe singer Cherie. He wants to take Cherie back to his native Montana and marry her, but she dreams of traveling to Hollywood and becoming famous. When she resists his advances, Decker forces Cherie onto the bus back to Montana with him, but, when the bus makes an unscheduled stop due to bad weather, the tables are turned.More...
Dersu Uzala1975-08-02A military explorer meets and befriends a Goldi man in Russia’s unmapped forests. A deep and abiding bond evolves between the two men, one civilized in the usual sense, the other at home in the glacial Siberian woods.More...
Tin Men1987-03-06A minor car accident drives two rival aluminum-siding salesmen to the ridiculous extremes of man versus man in 1963 Baltimore.More...
The Company of Wolves1984-09-21An adaptation of Angela Carter's fairy tales. Young Rosaleen dreams of a village in the dark woods, where Granny tells her cautionary tales in which innocent maidens are tempted by wolves who are hairy on the inside. As Rosaleen grows into womanhood, will the wolves come for her too?More...
Domestic Disturbance2001-10-28Frank Morrison is a divorced father with a 12-year-old son, Danny. His ex-wife Susan and son Danny now live with Rick Barnes, Susan's new husband. Danny, who has a reputation for telling lies, accuses his stepfather of committing a murder. Initially, no one believes his accusations, but then Frank becomes convinced and is the only one who believes him. Now, the father Danny trusts must protect him from the stepfather he fears.More...
The Hills Have Eyes Part 21985-08-02A motocross team on their way to trial a new super-fuel head out across the desert lead by Rachel, who, unbeknownst to the rest of the group, is a survivor of the cannibal clan which menaced the Carter family several years before.More...
Doctor Who: Planet of the Dead2009-04-11A meeting in a London bus with jewel thief Lady Christina takes a turn for the worse for the Doctor when the bus takes a detour to a desert-like planet, where the deadly Swarm awaits.More...
L'allenatore nel pallone 22008-01-11The famous Italian football coach Oronzo Canà has retired to a villa in Apulia. Now, old and tired, he is enjoying a quiet life there, cultivating his vineyard, when suddenly he is summoned to Milan, in northern Italy. There the elderly chairman of a great Lombard ("Longobarda") club is suffering from dementia and has lost his powers of judgement, and the club's manager has been fired. He has decided to bring back Oronzo Canà as trainer, remembering him from his great football team of thirty years before, tasking him with bringing the club back to its old winning ways. Oronzo puts his trust in the intervention of a Russian billionaire who has bought the club for promotion. But it is a deception.More...
Fireworks1997-10-10Ottone, a professional dog sitter who's uncertain about most things in life, asks an analyst if he made the right decision love-wise while recounting the significant relationships he had with four women.More...
George & Mildred1980-10-10Big screen spin-off of the Seventies sitcom. Mildred Roper is determined to make husband George celebrate their wedding anniversary in style, at a posh hotel in London. However, upon arrival George is mistaken by a gangland criminal for a rival hitman, and soon the Ropers find themselves up to their necks in trouble on the wrong side of the law!More...
Frenchmen 22007-10-24Alex, Antoine, Jeff and Manu. Four friends, four years later. Their relationships, friendship, shared secrets, feelings of guilt and their desire to change and improve.More...
Beloved2011-08-17From Paris in the 1960s to London in the first decade of the third millennium, Madeleine and her daughter Véra flit from one amorous adventure to the next, living for the moment and taking all the opportunities that life offers. But not every love affair is without its consequences, its upsets and its disappointments. As time goes by and gnaws away at one’s deepest feelings, love becomes a harder game to play.More...
Paisan1946-12-10During the Allied invasion of Italy in World War II, six stories unfold in various regions, from Sicily to the northern Po Valley. These tales follow the interactions between American soldiers and Italian civilians as they navigate their way through language barriers and cultural differences.More...
'R Xmas2001-12-14A New York drug dealer is kidnapped, and his wife must try to come up with the money and drugs to free him from his abductors before Christmas.More...
Heart of Glass1976-11-12A small Bavarian village is renowned for its "Ruby Glass" glass blowing works. When the foreman of the works dies suddenly without revealing the secret of the Ruby Glass, the town slides into a deep depression, and the owner of the glassworks becomes obssessed with the lost secret.More...
Le Guignolo1980-03-26After the failure of his recent criminal exploits, international con artist Alexandre Dupré sets off for Venice to try to dupe some Japanese business men into buying a fake copy of a stolen Caneletto. On the aeroplane, a stranger asks him to look after his briefcase until after they have landed. Alexandre agrees, but the stranger is shot dead soon after and Alexandre himself becomes the target of enemy agents who are keen to recover the briefcase...More...
Bummer 22006-03-07The film takes place a few years after the events shown in Bummer. Kostyan "Kot", who lost all his friends, the woman he loved and was nearly killed in the first installment of the film tries to begin a new, peaceful life. But is it possible to do? Has Russia changed and do "bratki" on black "bummers" no longer control business? Can he escape his past?More...
Death of a Corrupt Man1977-12-07In the middle of the night, deputy Philippe Dubaye wakes up his old friend Xavier Maréchal with disturbing news: he has just killed Serrano, a racketeer with extant political connections. Serrano kept proofs of Dubaye's involvement in corrupt dealings and was poised to use them against the deputy. Xavier readily agrees to cover up for his old pal Philippe, but he soon runs into difficulties. Nobody believes Dubaye's alibi. And everybody -- influential personalities, powerful businessmen, dubious go-betweens and the police -- wants to get hold of the documents that served to blackmail Dubaye; by all possible means...More...
Similar Movies
This Side of Heaven
1934-02-02A family man becomes innocently involved in an embezzlement.Death Goes to School
1953-05-01Detective Inspector Campbell (Gordon Jackson) looks into the murder of a teacher at a girls school where there are a number of suspects, including her colleagues and the married man she had been seeing.The Last Page
1952-01-25A married bookstore owner is blackmailed after he makes a pass at his new sexy blonde clerk.Brighton Rock
1948-01-09Centring on the activities of a gang of assorted criminals and, in particular, their leader – a vicious young hoodlum known as "Pinkie" – the film's main thematic concern is the criminal underbelly evident in inter-war Brighton.Corridor of Mirrors
1948-02-23A man falls in love with a beautiful young woman and begins to suspect that he may have also loved her in a previous life.Bang! You're Dead
1954-03-15Two small boys are playing in a wood. The younger boy has a revolver and, not understanding that the gun differs from his toy pistol, plays 'highwayman' on the road and holds up a cyclist; the gun goes off, killing the cyclist. Both boys are unaware of the tragic consequences of their game. The body and the gun are found by Bob Carter, who had recently quarreled with the victim in the presence of their workmates, and both men had uttered threats. The evidence is strong, and Bob is arrested for murder...Home at Seven
1952-03-16Unable to recall the past 24 hours, a British bank clerk is the prime suspect for a robbery/murder.Unmoored
2024-12-13A Swedish TV presenter's well-ordered life unravels when she finally confronts her domineering husband about an accusation against him. Her subsequent flight precipitates a chain of lies and paranoia in this taut psychological suspense drama.Chase a Crooked Shado...
1958-01-16A woman who lives in Spain has trouble convincing anybody that a complete stranger has taken her dead brother's identity.Yield to the Night
1956-06-19Locked in her cell, a murderer reflects on the events that have led her to death row.Hardboiled Rose
1929-03-30A Southern Belle must work in a gambling house to pay off her father's debts, which drove him to suicide. She then meets a man who sweeps her off her feet and takes her away from it all.Stolen Face
1952-05-01A plastic surgeon changes the face of a female convict to match that of the beautiful woman who broke his heart and left him. He marries the convict but trouble starts when his true love returns.Cosh Boy
1953-02-01Roy Walsh is a brash and enterprising thug who bullies his friends into subservience. He and his gang assault and rob people on the street, but things get increasingly dangerous when their behavior escalates to larger crimes.Behind the Headlines
1956-07-01Newspaper reporters compete with London police to solve a murder.Panic
1963-01-01In this crime melodrama, a Swiss woman finds herself unwittingly involved in a plot to steal from her employer, a London diamond merchant. Her boyfriend is behind the scheme. First he sends two accomplices disguised as German jewelers to see the boss. He is not fooled by their ruse and is killed while the woman is knocked unconscious. She awakens with amnesia and begins aimlessly wandering the London streets. Thinking that his girl has squealed to the police, her boy friend begins scouring the town to find her. Meanwhile, she is taken in by a boxer who returns to the ring to win the money needed to get her out of the country. Trouble ensues when her lover finally finds her after the match and begins beating on the exhausted fighter.Blind Date
1959-08-01Dutch painter Jan-Van Rooyer hurries to keep a rendezvous with Jacqueline Cousteau, an elegant, sophisticated Frenchwoman, slightly his elder, whose relationship with him had turned from art student into one of love trysts. He arrives and is confronted by Detective Police Inspector Morgan who accuses him of having murdered Jacqueline. Morgan listens sceptically to the dazed denials of Van Rooyer as he tells the story of his relationship with the murdered woman. Morgan, after hearing the story, realizes that the mystery has deepened, and it becomes more complicated when the Assistant Commissioner, Sir Brian Lewis, explains that Jacqueline was not married but was being kept by Sir Howard Fenton, a high-ranking diplomat whose names must be kept out of the case.The Man Who Watched T...
1952-12-01A Dutch company's owner bankrupts his own company, burns the incriminating ledgers and plans to run to Paris with the company funds but he is caught in the act by his accountant who challenges his actions, leading to a reversal of roles.Obsession
1949-08-03A British psychiatrist devises a devilish revenge plot against his wife's lover.From One Friday to th...
1985-01-01Friday is the day that everyone goes away for the weekend. A bank clerk spends his weekend off a small island with his boat, but the weekend does not run its usual course.Blonde Crazy
1931-09-16Adventures of a cocky con man and his beautiful accomplice.