The Sin of Nora Moran (1933)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
Beautiful 21-year-old Nora Moran (Zita Johann) waits on death row, hours away from her execution for a crime she did not commit. Sedated by sympathetic prison matrons, she dreamily recalls her tragic past. Orphaned at birth, she longs for a life in the theater, but as a teen is only able to find work in the circus as an assistant to Paulino (John Miljan), the lion tamer. Eventually, she runs away to escape brutal sexual abuse at the hands of her employer. Fleeing to another town, she finds love for the first time as the mistress of Governor Dick Crawford (Paul Cavanagh). Paulino finds her and as he attempts to rape her once more, he is murdered. She now willingly faces the electric chair, to protect the reputation of the real killer, the only man who ever gave her a brief taste of happiness. - Actors:
- Zita Johann, John Miljan, Alan Dinehart, Paul Cavanagh, Claire Du Brey, Sarah Padden, Henry B. Walthall, Harvey Clark, Aggie Herring, Cora Sue Collins, Joseph W. Girard, Ann Brody, Otis Harlan, Syd Saylor, Rolfe Sedan, Jack Cheatham, Rose Plumer, Otto Hahn
- Directors:
- Phil Goldstone
- Producers:
- Phil Goldstone
- Writers:
- W. Maxwell Goodhue, Frances Hyland
- Aka:
- Voice from the Grave / The Woman in the Chair
- Studio:
- Alpha Video
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Classics, Drama
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Reviews (1) of The Sin of Nora Moran
Out of Order - The Sin of Nora Moran review by griggs
Pre-Code Hollywood wasn't squeamish: rape, illicit love, murder, execution — The Sin of Nora Moran loads up every vice the Hays Code would soon start tutting at. More surprising is how strange the thing is formally: non-linear flashbacks, multiple narrators, and scenes that seem to fold past, present, and possible future into one another.
The trouble is that ambition and coherence aren't always on speaking terms. The storytelling lurches rather than flows, and the dialogue is often clunky enough to pull you out of its feverish little spell. What keeps it grounded — and genuinely worth 65 minutes of your life — is Zita Johann, whose raw, committed performance gives the film its aching centre.
Experimental, bewildering, and occasionally bewitching. A fascinating curio that never quite coheres, but remains more interesting to think about than to watch.