I watched Half A Sinner and it turned out to be a nice surprise. This is the 1940 romantic comedy not the 1934 movie about the preacher con-man. Heather Angel is a school teacher who saves her money, stays in with grandma, and fears a lonely life. I love her spinster hat and glasses. Heather was in several of the Bulldog Drummond movies. You can see a bunch of them over at the Internet Archive.
Heather splurges on a new dress and hat and goes out and steals a car. Isn't that awful. I mean that dress. It hangs on her like a crumpled fender. She's certainly got on the thickest bra you could find. The car stealing is not quite as bad as it sounds. Heather had been sitting on a bench in the park, just minding her own business. A car pulls up to the curb and a couple of guys get out. One guy crosses the street to a house, and the other guy starts hitting on Heather. He's pretty much forcing her into the car when she pushes him over a bench and steals his car. Ha ha! Crusing along the highway she picks up John "Dusty" King. He's a handsome guy with a secret. The car has a secret too. There's a dead guy in the back seat, wrapped up in the coat of a crime boss. His stupid henchmen are after the coat.
Our couple, and you know they are destined for each other 'cause it's a movie, have a bunch of adventures, all the while under a delusion about who they are and what's going on. They have a nice lunch. Later Heather burns a guy with a cigarette and scalds a guy with hot water. It's ok by me, those guys are some murderous scum who needs some corporal punishment heaped on their asses. Burn guy runs off stage left and scalded guy is down on the floor. Feeling sorry for the guy, Heather butters his back. It's an odd script written by Frederick Jackson from a story by Dalton Trumbo called Lady Takes A Chance.
Constance Collier plays a rich lady who befriends the couple on the sojurn into the country side. She was fun and stole scenes. That's the criminal's lair in the last picture. That looks like a stickey whicket, but don't worry, you can see how it ends at the link for the movie I've hidden in this post. I enjoyed it and will watch it again.
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