The Sin of Nora Moran (1933)

The Sin of Nora Moran is a pre-code melodrama made by Majestic Pictures in 1933.

As the movie opens Nora Moran (Zita Johann) is awaiting execution for murder. We don’t know whom she murdered or why.

The first flashback gives us the beginning of her story.

Nora had been an innocent convent girl with dreams of becoming a dancer. That dream fails to materialise so she joins the circus, as assistant to the lion-wrestler, Paulino (John Miljan). Yes, he’s a lion-wrestler, not a lion-tamer.

Unfortunately Paulino is much too interested in his beautiful naïve assistant. Her attempts to defend her virtue are unsuccessful. And Paulino is none too gentle in getting what he wants.

She runs away again and becomes a night-club performer. She meets ambitious politician Dick Crawford (Paul Cavanagh), a man being groomed to be the next Governor. They fall in love. He sets her up in a little cottage in the country. She is now a kept woman.

To what extent Dick actually loves her is slightly uncertain. What is even more uncertain is just how much Nora understands of her situation. She is very naïve. She must understand that Dick is married, but perhaps she just doesn’t want to understand.

Of course this happy little arrangement is bound to strike trouble. Dick’s brother-in-law District Attorney John Grant (Alan Dinehart) has been managing his political career. He is accustomed to the corruption of politicians and assumes that Nora is planning blackmail. 

And then the fatal event occurs.

I wouldn’t say that Zita Johann gives a good performance in a conventional sense but it’s a fine overheated melodrama performance. And this movie is full-blown delightfully overcooked melodrama.

The other performances are fine but the focus is entirely on Zita Johann.

There’s plenty of pre-code content with Nora being taken by force by Paulino and the fact that later on she is a kept woman is not glossed over in the slightest.

The movie uses the kind of montage effects you just don’t see in movies any more but I like those effects. It uses techniques that at the time were quite bold.

This movie is structured in an odd but interesting way. There are flashbacks, but they’re not done in a straightforward way. I won’t say any more in order to avoid spoilers but there is an enigmatic quality to the storytelling. The plot isn’t particularly unusual but it’s handled very oddly.

This is not a conventional movie for its time. It’s quite bizarre in many ways.

It’s that offbeat quality that makes it so fascinating. And you really can’t be sure where it’s going or what the real theme of the movie will turn out to be.

Not surprisingly critics at that time were bewildered by it and failed to understand that its oddness was intentional. It flopped badly at the box office. Whether you decide that it actually works or not is up to you but for its willingness to break the rules it’s highly recommended.

The movie looks great on the The Film Detective Blu-Ray. As an extra you get a documentary on the film and its star.