This is one of those movies so forgotten and demeaned by the few people that have seen it that kind of confuses me. One of the lowest rated films on the IMDB in John Huston's filmography, Sinful Davey seems to have this reputation as a complete mess, helped not at all by the fact that this is at least the third film that Huston simply abandoned during post-production, letting his producers do what they wanted to it (The Red Badge of Courage and The Barbarian and the Geisha are the other two). Considering the kind of energy-less films that Huston had been making over the previous decade or so, I wonder if Walter Mirisch, the producer who recut Sinful Davey into its current form after its previews, actually did the film a favor by cutting down to its comedic bones. It still doesn't quite work, but it's amusing in a way that a cut thirty minutes longer might not have accomplished.
Davey Haggart (John Hurt) claims to be the son of a notorious Scottish outlaw, and is determined to make himself a life of greater note than his father who robbed a stagecoach and the Duke of Argyle. Having reached maturity as a drummer in the King's army, he absconds from his post, using his large drum as a raft down the river, and enters into his life of crime when he meets the pickpocket MacNab (Ronald Fraser). The events of the film are a relatively loose collection of events as Davey outruns the law, his childhood friend from the orphanage Annie (Pamela Franklin), and marches ever-onward to the other end of his framing device, him writing his memoirs.
Each event is lightly comic and amusing. From his chase through a town because he gets caught with his hand in a man's pocket to him and MacNab trying to talk their way out of constable attention while carrying a freshly dug up coffin to breaking through the roof of the male prison to get into the female prison for prostitutes to have a large party, it's all fun little bits as Davey frames his adventures in the highest spirits while actually just stumbling from one misadventure to the next. When he robs the stagecoach like his father, he decks himself out in the finest of clothes, gets tossed from the carriage, and ends up in the hands of some vagabonds who talk about cutting him open to hide his body in a loch, saved only by Annie showing up and Davey's eye for the next potential prize, a ship on the water that could hold up to a hundred pounds. It's this light touch, along with the similar timing in terms of production and similar location, that remind me of Tony Richardson's Tom Jones, though that was a film botched during production saved during post, which this seems to have potentially been the opposite (though perhaps not).
The centerpiece of the final half is Davey getting under the wing of the Duke of Argyle (Robert Morley) (an event that happens off screen, so it was probably filmed and cut), ingratiating himself into his society while the constable Richardson (Nigel Davenport) hangs around looking for him, and organizes an elaborate pickpocketing operation during a ball involving a fishing rod and a series of handkerchiefs.
It all comes to its end with Davey getting caught, put into prison, the Duke doing everything he can save for freeing him to make his life better, including promising to publish his memoirs, and Annie getting tricksy because she both loves Davey and wants to save his soul.
Is it a horrendous misfire? I really don't think so. I find it pretty consistently amusing, if light and airy. It may not be the most successful film of this period in John Huston's directing career (which Vincent Canby called the "tired period" which, you know, it fits), but it is honestly the one I would probably want to revisit the most since The Misfits. I still wouldn't go so far as to call it good, but for 90-minutes, it lightly entertained me even if I felt like it could have been more. More insightful, funnier, or more touching, but the package as it stands now is amusing and undemanding. That's alright sometimes.
Anchored by an amusing performance from Hurt (though Albert Finney in Tom Jones just oozed more effortless charisma), Sinful Davey is underseen, over-maligned, and, well, lightly amusing.
Davey Haggart (John Hurt) claims to be the son of a notorious Scottish outlaw, and is determined to make himself a life of greater note than his father who robbed a stagecoach and the Duke of Argyle. Having reached maturity as a drummer in the King's army, he absconds from his post, using his large drum as a raft down the river, and enters into his life of crime when he meets the pickpocket MacNab (Ronald Fraser). The events of the film are a relatively loose collection of events as Davey outruns the law, his childhood friend from the orphanage Annie (Pamela Franklin), and marches ever-onward to the other end of his framing device, him writing his memoirs.
Each event is lightly comic and amusing. From his chase through a town because he gets caught with his hand in a man's pocket to him and MacNab trying to talk their way out of constable attention while carrying a freshly dug up coffin to breaking through the roof of the male prison to get into the female prison for prostitutes to have a large party, it's all fun little bits as Davey frames his adventures in the highest spirits while actually just stumbling from one misadventure to the next. When he robs the stagecoach like his father, he decks himself out in the finest of clothes, gets tossed from the carriage, and ends up in the hands of some vagabonds who talk about cutting him open to hide his body in a loch, saved only by Annie showing up and Davey's eye for the next potential prize, a ship on the water that could hold up to a hundred pounds. It's this light touch, along with the similar timing in terms of production and similar location, that remind me of Tony Richardson's Tom Jones, though that was a film botched during production saved during post, which this seems to have potentially been the opposite (though perhaps not).
The centerpiece of the final half is Davey getting under the wing of the Duke of Argyle (Robert Morley) (an event that happens off screen, so it was probably filmed and cut), ingratiating himself into his society while the constable Richardson (Nigel Davenport) hangs around looking for him, and organizes an elaborate pickpocketing operation during a ball involving a fishing rod and a series of handkerchiefs.
It all comes to its end with Davey getting caught, put into prison, the Duke doing everything he can save for freeing him to make his life better, including promising to publish his memoirs, and Annie getting tricksy because she both loves Davey and wants to save his soul.
Is it a horrendous misfire? I really don't think so. I find it pretty consistently amusing, if light and airy. It may not be the most successful film of this period in John Huston's directing career (which Vincent Canby called the "tired period" which, you know, it fits), but it is honestly the one I would probably want to revisit the most since The Misfits. I still wouldn't go so far as to call it good, but for 90-minutes, it lightly entertained me even if I felt like it could have been more. More insightful, funnier, or more touching, but the package as it stands now is amusing and undemanding. That's alright sometimes.
Anchored by an amusing performance from Hurt (though Albert Finney in Tom Jones just oozed more effortless charisma), Sinful Davey is underseen, over-maligned, and, well, lightly amusing.