‘Seven Sinners’ or — Sex Off Sumatra?

I found myself playing a fun game watching the very entertaining ‘Seven Sinners’ (1940) last night, a film which concerns torch singer Bijou Blanche (Marlene Dietrich) and her entourage as they are kicked off one South Sea island after another until she meets a handsome naval officer and falls in love. All this takes place not far from Sumatra so the game I found myself inadvertently playing was this — I wonder if they’ll bump into Carl Denham and the Venture on his way to Skull Island? I just loved the thought that as Ann Darrow was running away from dinosaurs that, meanwhile on a nearby island, Marlene Dietrich was giving John Wayne an erection.

‘Seven Sinners’ is one of those South Sea romps where various people with various professions from various nations meet in an exotic location. The men are sweaty and always ready for a fight or a fuck (it must be that thick, tropical air). Bijou Blanche both calms and stokes their lusts and passions by singing sexy songs and wearing a series of increasingly ridiculous costumes, driving the men completely crazy in the process and resulting in the destruction of private property. No wonder she keeps getting kicked off so many islands!

When naive naval officer, Lt. Dan Brent (John Wayne) appears on the scene at the Seven Sinners nightclub where Bijou performs it seems as though this might, finally, be the man who can offer her a more stable way of life. Yet maybe Bijou needs the thrill of instability in order to live her life to the full?

‘Seven Sinners’ is a lightweight, knockabout comedy with Dietrich’s Bijou as the gravitational centre around which everything revolves, specifically the men. It has frequent and explicit nods to her previous work with von Sternberg (‘The Blue Angel’, ‘Morocco’ etc) yet without the excessive style and opulence of those films. This could make ‘Seven Sinners’ seem lesser in comparison but, and this could be heresy I’m about to commit, what it lacks in aesthetic abandon it makes up for in a department von Sternberg could sometimes struggle with — i.e. easy going fun.

So rather than the fetishistic obsession with Dietrich’s visage, in ‘Seven Sinners’ there’s the sensation of Dietrich in direct possession of a perceptible freedom, as though a window had been open just a crack allowing the breeze of modernity to enter into her movie. It’s the same with her costumes. She might not wear anything as flamboyant (fucking unhinged?) as in ‘The Scarlet Empress’ (1934) but she’s still decked out in a succession of spectacularly extravagant outfits that feel startlingly contemporary in comparison (she feels, and looks, less weighed down).

The supporting cast help keep this light touch going. Billy Gilbert is all blustering energy as Tony, Mischa Auer is fun (if a tad grating) as bumbling magician Sasha although it’s Broderick Crawford as the devoted, if uncouth, Little Ned who’s the most fun to watch. Not all the gags or bits of business work but this is written and performed by people who know what they’re doing and there’s some very funny stuff going on here.

There’s also some nice musical numbers to provide a splash of glamour, as well as a couple of audio gags as almost every song is suddenly interrupted at some point letting the filmmakers have some fun with the sound design. There’s also some very nice camera work, lighting and set design all of which creates just the right amount of exotic atmosphere without being overbearing.

And as for John Wayne? Well, I’m biased so I need to be careful as my dad was a left wing social worker who subscribed to New Society magazine. I mention this as the possible explanation for why I grew up in a rabidly anti-John Wayne household. His films weren’t banned when I was growing up as such but they were held in suspicion, almost as though simple exposure to them risked turning me into a Republican and joining the draft which I always found odd considering we lived in Scotland years after the Vietnam War had ended.

I’m still left wing and still haven’t fought in Nam but I’ve now seen a number of John Wayne movies (I like ‘Red River’ and ‘The Searchers’ a lot) and he’s… okay. And that’s how I would describe Wayne here — okay. He’s a wooden naïf and plays it as such with ease, maybe TOO much ease as it seems like he isn’t actually acting, although this also helps sell the idea that he and Bijou Blanche are most certainly not a logical match for each other.

‘Seven Sinners’ is an incredibly easy, and rather fun, watch. It sets out to entertain, to give Dietrich a stage on which to be as big and sultry as she can be whilst a succession of colourful characters in a colourful environment surround and buzz about her. It might not have the visual opulence of her work with von Sternberg but it might just have a little more breathing room, and it’s amazing the difference something like that can make.