The Sin of Nora Moran

The Sin of Nora Moran is a 1933 American pre-Code melodrama and proto-noir film directed by Phil Goldstone. It is based on the short story "Burnt Offering" by W. Maxwell Goodhue. The film is also known as Voice from the Grave (American reissue title). Since the protagonist is put to death for a crime she did not commit, some see the film as an argument against capital punishment.

The painting for the movie poster is by Peruvian artist Alberto Vargas, who was working in the United States. He later became known for his images of the "Vargas Girls".

Plot
Edith Crawford, the widow of Governor Dick Crawford, confronts her brother, District Attorney John Grant with a stack of unsigned love letters she found in her husband's private safe. John advises her to burn them. Edith refuses, vowing to find the author of the letters and make her suffer. John gives her a newspaper clipping about Nora Moran, the first woman to be executed in the electric chair in twenty years. The camera pans to the fireplace as Grant describes the “cold-blooded” preparations for an execution. Flashback to the prison, where the doctor gives Nora a sedative. and a kindly matron tells her there might still be hope, if she would only tell why she did it. Nora refuses. Seeking consolation, her confused mind focuses on Father Ryan as she remembers the events of her life. At age 5, after years in a Catholic orphanage, she is adopted by the kindly Morans. When they are killed in a car crash, Nora pays their debts and with the remaining $300 trains as a dancer. She cannot find work, until a traveling circus hires her as assistant to Paulino, the lion tamer. It is “a glorious adventure” until Paulino rapes her.

In the prison, Sadie appears and offers to change the dream, reminding Nora that she once gave a suicidal Nora a hundred dollars. Nora wants to remember being happy.

Working in a New York night club chorus line, she meets Dick Crawford and the two start an affair. He brings her to live in a house just over the state line where he can see her twice a week. But in her dream, the doorbell rings and Nora remembers what is coming. It is Grant. He and his sister are ambitious. Grant has groomed Crawford to run for governor to further his own political ambitions. He threatens to reveal Nora's personal history, including her connection to the circus playing in town. Crawford believes that she has been promiscuous and leaves. The dream image of Grant tells her she must go on with it, she cannot change what has already happened.

The preparations for execution continues, She imagines Grant and Crawford seeing her in her coffin. Grant explains why her head is partly shaved—in detail. She must die again tonight.

Nora wants to wake up. Mrs Watts helps her to walk.

Grant offers Nora a kickback but she refuses. Two hours later, she calls Grant to the house and shows him Paulino's body. Paulino had come to blackmail her. She killed him. To save Crawford they try to cover up Paulino's death by moving the body near the train, but Nora is apprehended and arrested for first-degree murder. Nora does not testify in her defense, and is found guilty.

In the present, Edith remains unsympathetic. Grant tells her that if Nora had told the whole story she would have been acquitted and he would have gone to prison and Crawford would have been run out of the state. Edith is proud that Crawford resisted the temptation to pardon Nora.

Grant shows Edith a letter Crawford wrote to him. Crawford learns of Nora's execution. He remembers going back, fighting Paulino and killing him in self-defense. Nora tells him to leave. Crawford talks to Nora's spirit, appearing from her cell where Father Ryan is praying with her. He tries to prevent the execution but is too late. She disappears but he hears her voice saying here is nothing to fear from death. He finished the letter and shoots himself.

In the present, with Edith's consent, Grant burns all of Crawford's letters.

Cast

 * Zita Johann as Nora Moran
 * John Miljan as Paulino
 * Alan Dinehart as District Attorney John Grant
 * Paul Cavanagh as Governor Dick Crawford
 * Claire Du Brey as Mrs. Edith Crawford
 * Sarah Padden as Mrs. Watts
 * Henry B. Walthall as Father Ryan
 * Otis Harlan as Mr. Moran
 * Aggie Herring as Mrs. Moran
 * Cora Sue Collins as Nora Moran, as a Child
 * Joseph W. Girard as Captain of Detectives
 * Ann Brody as Matron
 * Rolfe Sedan as Stage Manager
 * Otto Yamaoka as Kito (uncredited)

Reception
The Chicago Daily Tribune wrote, "It might have been gripping if it weren't so confusing."