Directed by: John G. Adolfi
Starring: Grant Withers, Evalyn Knapp, James Cagney, Joan Blondell, Lucille La Verne, Warren Hymer

STORY

Welcome to the penny arcade, where the games may be cheap but the stakes are anything but. On a bustling amusement pier, Ma Delano runs an arcade while keeping a fiercely protective eye on her family. Her daughter Jennie is in love with Angel Harrigan, an employee whose presence doesn't exactly thrill Ma, while her son Harry has become involved with a far more dangerous crowd.
Harry Delano, played by a young James Cagney, is mixed up with bootleggers and soon finds himself at the center of deadly trouble. When a confrontation ends in murder, Ma's determination to protect her son threatens to send an innocent man down for the crime. Family loyalty, romance and the criminal underworld collide as the truth becomes increasingly difficult to hide.
Sinners’ Holiday is fascinating not only as an early pre-Code crime drama, but as the moment movie audiences first encountered James Cagney. The explosive energy, quick delivery and dangerous edge that would soon make him one of Hollywood's most distinctive stars are already visible. Cagney wasn't yet the headliner, but watching the movie today, it's difficult to take your eyes off him.

AIN BACKSTAGE SECRETS & AINTOIDS

THE MOVIE THAT INTRODUCED JAMES CAGNEY
Sinners’ Holiday marked James Cagney's motion-picture debut. Before Hollywood, Cagney had been a New York stage performer and dancer. Here, audiences got their first glimpse of the screen presence that would soon turn him into one of Warner Bros.' biggest stars.

BEFORE SINNERS’ HOLIDAY, THERE WAS PENNY ARCADE
The movie was adapted from Marie Baumer's Broadway play Penny Arcade, which opened in New York in March 1930. Cagney had played Harry Delano onstage before recreating the part for the film.

CAGNEY AND BLONDELL CAME TO HOLLYWOOD TOGETHER

James Cagney wasn't the only future star carried over from the Broadway production. Joan Blondell also recreated her stage role for the movie. Sinners’ Holiday helped launch two enormously recognizable screen careers and began a memorable series of Cagney/Blondell film pairings.

CAGNEY WASN'T THE STAR — YET
Grant Withers and Evalyn Knapp received the leading roles, while Cagney appeared as Harry Delano. Hollywood wouldn't take long to discover what it had in Cagney. His combination of speed, toughness, humor and unpredictability made even supporting roles difficult to ignore.

PRE-CODE CAGNEY

Released several years before Hollywood began rigidly enforcing the Production Code, Sinners’ Holiday belongs to the fascinating pre-Code era. Bootlegging, murder, criminal behavior and morally complicated characters give the film an edge that would become more difficult for filmmakers to portray so directly later in the decade.

AINTOID: WARNER BROS. FOUND ITS FUTURE TOUGH GUY

Warner Bros. produced the picture with its Vitaphone operation. Cagney would soon become one of the studio's defining stars, particularly after his breakthrough performance in The Public Enemy the following year.

AINTOID: THE TITLE CHANGED

The production had connections to several titles before reaching audiences as Sinners’ Holiday. AFI records the alternate titles Penny Arcade and Women in Love, and notes that some contemporary sources actually reviewed the picture under the singular title Sinner's Holiday.

AINTOID: A STAR IS BORN

There is something especially wonderful about watching Sinners’ Holiday nearly a century later. Moviegoers in 1930 couldn't possibly have known that the young actor playing Harry Delano would become James Cagney, Academy Award winner, Hollywood legend and one of the most instantly recognizable performers in American film history. AIN audiences get to go back to the very beginning.