Unguarded Hour, The (1936)
*** (out of 4)
A future D.A. (Franchot Tone) is being blackmailed over letters written to a former mistress so his wife (Loretta Young) goes to pay off the blackmailer (Henry Daniell). There's more to the story including the mistress being murdered as well as another murder case that took place where Young went to drop off the money but I won't go into much detail about those issues because how they come up is half the fun of the film. I really wasn't expecting much from this film but it turned out to be a very intelligent little thriller that has some great acting by the leads and supporting cast. Loretta Young is great as usual as the wife who must decide to save an innocent man's life or ruin the career of her husband. There's one scene in the film where Tone, Lewis Stone and Roland Young are putting on a fake trial and talking about how what seems to be hiding up guilt might just be the person telling the truth. This is a terrific little scene and all three actors really sell it perfectly. There's a lot of dialogue in this movie but director Wood keeps everything moving along at a fast pace. The title refers to an hour in every person's life where they can't prove where they were and there's no one there to back up where they might have been so if they were charged with a crime there's no way they could get out of it.
*** (out of 4)
A future D.A. (Franchot Tone) is being blackmailed over letters written to a former mistress so his wife (Loretta Young) goes to pay off the blackmailer (Henry Daniell). There's more to the story including the mistress being murdered as well as another murder case that took place where Young went to drop off the money but I won't go into much detail about those issues because how they come up is half the fun of the film. I really wasn't expecting much from this film but it turned out to be a very intelligent little thriller that has some great acting by the leads and supporting cast. Loretta Young is great as usual as the wife who must decide to save an innocent man's life or ruin the career of her husband. There's one scene in the film where Tone, Lewis Stone and Roland Young are putting on a fake trial and talking about how what seems to be hiding up guilt might just be the person telling the truth. This is a terrific little scene and all three actors really sell it perfectly. There's a lot of dialogue in this movie but director Wood keeps everything moving along at a fast pace. The title refers to an hour in every person's life where they can't prove where they were and there's no one there to back up where they might have been so if they were charged with a crime there's no way they could get out of it.