Just so...so bad

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Somewhat outdated after 70 years, SEVEN SINNERS is not so much a John Wayne movie as it is a Marlene Dietrich movie. She is the top-billed star, and John Wayne has little to do except looking handsome in his Navy uniform and getting involved in a spectacular saloon fight.ANY John Wayne movie is a bona fide classic simply because Wayne is in the film. This one was re-issued to theaters and still has box office life in it via the recent DVD release. Universal has paired it with a much superior Wayne movie in stunning 3-strip Technicolor -- Shepherd of the Hills (about the moonshine business). Buy or rent it; you can't go wrong.

This was a fair adventure story with some eccentric characters. For example:Albert Dekker as "Dr. Martin, the musician; Broderick Crawford as "'Litle Ned' Finnegan," Marlene Dietrich's punch-happy protector, and Dietrich as 'Bijou Blanche," a cabaret singer bouncing from place to place. Dietrich loved to play Cabaret singers and "Bijou Blanche" is a great name for her. She didn't look pretty in here, more grotesque with the super-thin eyebrows and tons of lipstick. She was definitely unappealing....and I like her, normally. Her "makeup" sins, if nothing else, made me dump this VHS.Of note, John Wayne, Anna Lee, Mischa Auer, Billy Gilbert, Richard Carlson, Oscar Homolka, Reginald Denny and James Craig are all familiar names that add to the cast. Yet despite all the impressive names, I don't think it was that great. I wouldn't watch it again.

After Marlene Dietrich at a new studio, Universal, had made something of a comeback in Destry Rides Again, the studio was understandably looking for new properties to follow it up. They certainly got one in Seven Sinners, a really great blend of satirical comedy and drama. Certainly Dietrich is no poor man's Sadie Thompson. One wonders why she never did her own version of Rain. She pokes fun at that type of character, but there is a skillful blend of both drama and satire in this film.Stagecoach was done the year before and with it John Wayne finally joined the list of A players. Director Tay Garnett had Wayne in mind for this film, but Dietrich would have the final approval. The story goes he deliberately arranged for Dietrich to have lunch at the studio commissary at a time Wayne would be there. She took one look at Wayne who reminded her so much of former lover Gary Cooper, she said to Garnett in that Dietrich baritone, "Daddy, buy me that."This is Dietrich's film, but there's enough action to satisfy any Wayne fan. Tay Garnett assembled a good supporting cast with good girl Anna Lee, Dietrich retainers Mischa Auer and Broderick Crawford, befuddled owner of the Seven Sinners Cafe Billy Gilbert, and the very sinister Oscar Homolka.Up until All the King's Men, the part that Broderick Crawford played here was a typical part, the dumb lug who's the hero/heroine's friend. He does it well, but Crawford resented the typecasting. He was quoted as saying that while he never considered himself the world's greatest wit, he did resent playing half a one all the time back in the day. This was Crawford's only film with Wayne and that's interesting because both of them were heavy boozers.Dietrich like in Destry Rides Again has two good songs to sing written by fellow German expatriate Frederick Hollander and Frank Loesser, I've Been in Love Before and The Man's in the Navy. She also sings I Can't Give You Anything But Love, one of the great standards back in the day.Seven Sinners is classic Marlene Dietrich one of her most enjoyable films and John Wayne fans will like it also.

This rowdy South Seas romp is the high point of Marlene Dietrich's more user-friendly populist period: she plays "Bijou", a "singer" who gets deported from island after island because she innocently enflames both locals and sailors into brawling and destroying the nightclubs. Bijou values handsome guys, diamonds, and good friends, not to mention her wardrobe of feathers, flounces, silks, lace parasols, and even a sailor's uniform. As the object of Bijou's attention, John Wayne is at his freshest and most appealing, sheepishly bringing her armloads of orchids. The supporting cast is unusually deep: dense but loyal Broderick Crawford, sneaky Mischa Auer, menacing Oscar Homolka, perpetually befuddled Billy Gilbert, world-weary Albert Dekker, pretty Anna Lee. The lavish production includes sunny lighting and dynamic camera moves from Rudolph Mate. For once, director Tay Garnett gets it all right: the tropical atmosphere, the teasing romance, the broad comedy, the bittersweet edge [see Bijou's exchanges with the ship's doctor], plus four good musical numbers.