Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		2.5
Audio		2.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Sin Takes a Holiday Blu-ray Movie Review

A romantic storyline exploring the relationship between a secretary and her boss...

Rounding out the RKO Classic Romances collection from Kino Lorber films is Sin Takes a Holiday, a 1930 pre-code romantic-drama with some comedic undertones. Starring Constance Bennett (Bed of Roses, What Price Hollywood?) and Kenneth MacKenna (Judgment at Nuremberg, Men Without Women), the feature explores an altogether common romantic-comedy concoction: the idea of a employee dating their boss. The feature is produced by the prolific E.B. Derr (Barefoot Boy, Swing High).

Sylvia Brenner (Constance Bennett) is an ordinary secretary simply trying to do her day-to-day work to make a living for herself. During the course of her time working with her workplace superior, Gaylord Stanton (Kenneth MacKenna), Slyvia begins to have serious romantic longing for her boss. She finds him to be a total dream.

The head-honcho boss takes little notice of Slyvia and dismisses her affections at the start. However, as the business he operates involves Mr. Stanton having to have many interactions with beautiful women he comes across he comes to realize countless women are vying for his attention. He decides that in order to avoid getting hitched to some woman he doesn't have an interest in (strictly for business purposes), he'll propose to his secretary in order to avoid getting married to someone else.

"Do tell! How did he seduce you?"

The screenplay by Horace Jackson (The Animal Kingdom, This Thing Called Love) is rather far-fetched and feels like something that has been done time-and-time again in a variety of romantic-comedies. It certainly doesn't feel as distinctive or memorable as the other features included in the RKO Romance collection. The story simply falls flat and doesn't give much depth or dimensionality to these cookie cutter characters. One can simply tell that little effort went into the formation of the storyline.

On the production side of things, the feature has some decent elements. Costumes are designed by Gwen Wakeling (The Grapes of Wrath, Samson and Delilah) and are well-designed for the film's characters. The cinematography by John J. Mescall (Bride of Frankenstein, The Black Cat) is a impressively well lit and aesthetically pleasing black-and-white and suits the filmmaking fine.

Paul L. Stein (April Blossoms, The Song You Gave Me) directs the film with a rather conventional approach which feels like the type of effort that might have inspired later romantic-comedies such as 2009's bleak effort Confessions of a Shopaholic. The film feels like the type of directorial effort which was done with a studio's direct involvement. The film lacks a truly distinctive flavor or character and comes up as being the weakest effort in the entire collection of RKO classic romances. One can easily dismiss it's mundane approach to storytelling.

Sin Takes a Holiday Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Arriving on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber, Sin Takes a Holiday features a 1080p MPEG-4 AVC encoded high definition presentation. The film is presented in the 1.33:1 full frame aspect ratio. This is not a knockout transfer in any sense. The black-and-white photography for the feature has not been as well restored as one may hope to find. Lobster Film's restoration is merely passable with weak black levels and a number of print scratches and minor blemishes throughout the entire presentation. It's about the weakest looking presentation for the features which have been included in the RKO romance set.

Sin Takes a Holiday Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The audio quality for Sin Takes a Holiday doesn't fare that much better than the video presentation. Featuring a weak level of sonic fidelity, the audio quality is merely acceptable. The presentation is often muddy sounding. Clarity on the included audio track is somewhat disappointing. While it's a acceptable presentation in that dialogue can still be easily understood and distinguished, it's not a pleasant sounding mix and has a rather scratchy and tinny sound quality to the audio. English SDH subtitles are provided.

Sin Takes a Holiday Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplemental features on this release.

Sin Takes a Holiday Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Sin Takes a Holiday is easily the least interesting feature which is included in the otherwise impressive RKO classic romances collection. The set contains a number of stellar features but unfortunately this isn't one of them. The film feels like a drag to sit through with it's entirely conventional storytelling dragging down the other aspects of the filmmaking. The transfer is also a mediocre presentation and its obvious the presentation could have used more effort on the restoration. While the film itself does not come recommended, the overall collection of films included in this collection is impressive and fans of classic romances by RKO will find the set a worthy addition to the film collections.