An international grain trader based in Chicago at the time of the 1929 Stock Market crash, John Houseman turned in desperation to a second career as a theatrical producer. His association with up-and-coming actor-manager Orson Welles led to shared labor in the Works Progress Administration-funded Federal Theatre Project, which in turn beget The Mercury Theatre, the infamous 1938 radio recreation of H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds, and Orson Welles' feature film directorial debut, Citizen Kane (1941). After parting ways with Welles, Houseman produced plays on Broadway and films for Universal, Paramount and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. His first project for MGM was an adaptation of Hamilton Basso's 1939 novel Days Before Lent, which was rolled out to American moviegoers as Holiday for Sinners (1952). Set in New Orleans during Mardi Gras, the traditional Catholic festival of excess on the eve of Lenten self-denial, the film centers on the relationship of an idealistic young doctor (Gig Young) and his priest best friend (Richard Anderson) as they attempt to maintain their devotion to the poor against temptations of cash and carnality. Directed by Gerald Mayer, nephew of studio head Louis B. Mayer, the film costars Keenan Wynn in one of his best, most unheralded roles, as a boxing champion on the skids, whose failing eyesight and predilection for booze ultimately forces the hand of fate.

By Richard Harland Smith