gridoon2018 Sexy Joan sings, dances (partly in male disguise!) and displays her thick, strong legs, until she sees the light under the guidance of Clark Gable and covers up in the Salvation Army robe. Their roles don't allow them much electricity in their chemistry, and they are not helped by a slight, mediocre script. ** out of 4.

Michael_Elliott Laughing Sinners (1931) ** (out of 4) Boring, predictable and at times laughable melodrama from MGM features Joan Crawford playing Ivy, a naive girl who has her heart broken by a scumbag (Neil Hamilton) so she decides to kill herself. A Salvation Army preacher (Clark Gable) saves her from doing so and try to get her back on track but soon the old boyfriend shows up. LAUGHING SINNERS is such a bad film that it could only be saved by two screen legends who are both horribly miscast. It's strange that the performances would be what saves this film because the truth is that the performances really aren't that good. I think this film will mainly appeal to die-hard fans of Crawford and Gable who want to see what the two do in a lousy movie where both of them are playing roles that simply aren't suited for them. I've give them both credit for at least trying to pull the parts off but in the end they just don't work. I think one of the main problems is that both are so strong that it's hard to see them playing such soft characters. Crawford is somewhat charming playing the naive girl at the start of things but where she really heats up is towards the end when she's faced with a dilemma. The same can be said for Gable who just isn't believable as the soft-spoken preacher but he too picks up at the end when the muscles come out. Hamilton is rather forgettable in the role of the boyfriend and even Guy Kibbee is wasted in his supporting role. The screenplay is a real mess because it takes 25-minutes for the break-up to actually happen and then we have to sit through more melodrama and I'm sure you know how it's all going to end. Another problem is that the direction by Harry Beaumont is just so lifeless that everything drags. LAUGHING SINNERS is a pretty embarrassing movie but I still think fans of Crawford and Gable will remain mildly entertained just by seeing the two in roles that don't make them look too good.

bkoganbing The second film that had Clark Gable and Joan Crawford together didn't start out that way. Laughing Sinners started out with Johnny Mack Brown as the Salvation Army Worker who saves Crawford and the film was completed when Louis B. Mayer saw the film and said reshoot it with Gable. This was after having seen them together in Dance Fools Dance where Gable was a villain and had only a couple of scenes with Crawford. This is according to Joan herself in a tribute she wrote in the Citadel Film Series Book, The Films of Clark Gable.Crawford is definitely in her element as singer/dancer and good time Prohibition party girl who falls for the charms of Neil Hamilton, a traveling salesman. You know what a bunch of party animals they are, just ask Arthur Miller. Anyway Hamilton decides though he thinks Joan's great in the hay, he wants to marry the boss's daughter and does, leaving her flat and despondent.One night as she's ready to throw herself off a bridge, Salvation Army worker Clark Gable stops her. She likes him, but still has a yen for Hamilton and he, her.Given Clark Gable's later image the casting of him as a Salvation Army worker is ludicrous. Mayer knew that and during the course of the film he gives him a nice prison background before he joined Edwin Booth's Army. The only way Gable could possibly fit the part. Anyway Mayer did it for the obvious chemistry between Gable and Crawford.It's more Joan's picture than his though. Later on her talents as a dancer which brought her to film in the first place would be not seen at all. So Laughing Sinners is a treat in that way.The film is based on a Broadway play Torch Song which ran for 87 performances the year before and starred Mayo Methot, Reed Brown, and Russell Hicks in the parts that Crawford, Hamilton, and Gable have. Coming over from the Broadway cast is Guy Kibbee in the role of another salesman, the only one to repeat his role from Broadway. Roscoe Karns and Cliff Edwards play another pair of salesmen and Marjorie Rambeau is Crawford's party girl friend.Russell Hicks is definitely more my idea of a Salvation Army worker, but Gable's more my idea of a leading man opposite Joan Crawford.

MartinHafer What boob at MGM thought it would be a good idea to place the studly Clark Gable in the role of a Salvation Army worker?? Ironically enough, another handsome future star, Cary Grant, also played a Salvation Army guy just two years later in the highly overrated SHE DONE HIM WRONG. I guess in hindsight it's pretty easy to see the folly of these roles, but I still wonder WHO thought that Salvation Army guys are "HOT" and who could look at these dashing men and see them as realistic representations of the parts they played. A long time ago, I used to work for a sister organization of the Salvation Army (the Volunteers of America) and I NEVER saw any studly guys working there (and that includes me, unfortunately). Maybe I should have gotten a job with the Salvation Army instead!So, for the extremely curious, this is a good film to look out for, but for everyone else, it's poor writing, sloppy dialog and annoying moralizing make for a very slow film.