brilliant actors, brilliant editing

I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

This film begins with a slick blackmailer (Henry Daniell) approaching a young wife (Loretta Young) and telling her he has letters from Young's husband (Franchot Tone) to a married woman. The letters are VERY indiscreet and they were written years before Tone's marriage. But, considering Tone was cavorting about with a married lady, the letters could destroy his career. When Young later meets with the blackmailer for the payoff, she witnesses a man and his wife walking about the cliff. Well, the wife apparently fell soon after and people thought the man killed her--but Loretta knows that he's innocent. But, to go to the police, she might have to explain why she was there. It's a ridiculous coincidence, but it turns out later that her husband is to prosecute the accused killer! A bit later, the blackmailer's accomplice (his wife) contacts Tone. She, too, hopes to blackmail money from Tone for the letters. However, after going to meet her, a murder occurs and it sure looks like Tone killed one of the blackmailers! And, since Tone and Young haven't talked about the letters, both are being bled by these leeches. What's to happen next?! Overall, this isn't a bad film but it suffers from some problems. First, common sense would say that Young WOULD talk to her husband about the blackmailers and the two would work together--but they don't. In fact, several times during the film you find it hard to believe what the characters do--such as when Young meets with Daniell late in the film and the insanely bizarre ending (this made no sense at all). Second, the movie is a bit too mannered and talky--too many folks in tuxes talking around the subject instead of dealing with the crimes directly. As a result, the film is a bit cold and uninvolving when it should have been more exciting. Still, it's worth seeing and isn't a bad film at all--it's just that it should have been better.By the way, Henry Daniell played a wonderful blackmailer. He's even juicier in such a role in "The Suspect"--a dandy film and one of the best films of the 1940s.

Loretta Young, Franchot Tone, Lewis Stone, Roland Young, and Henry Daniell are all involved in "The Unguarded Hour," a 1936 film directed by Sam Wood.Young plays Lady Dearden, a newlywed whose husband's (Tone) promising career as a prosecutor is threatened by letters he wrote to another woman before he was married. The blackmailer (Daniell) gives Lady Dearden some complicated instructions by which to deliver the money to him. She follows his instructions but in doing so, she becomes the only witness in a case her husband is trying. Though a man's life is at stake, she doesn't want her husband to know of the incident.Pretty good if talky film, with the 23-year-old Young stealing every scene in which she appears with her glorious looks and gentle quality. There are still beautiful actresses, but Young truly had a special look and a gentility we probably won't see again. Franchot does a good job as her handsome husband, and Roland Young is delightful as a family friend. Henry Daniell, who played slimeballs so well, plays a slimeball here.Enjoyable.

Director Sam Wood can't get much cinematic life into this courtroom drama about a mild-mannered man (Dudley Digges) accused of pushing his wife off the Dover cliffs. Barrister Franchot Tone is the prosecutor who discovers that a woman witness can prove the man innocent--and little does he suspect that that woman is his wife (Loretta Young).Trouble is there are far too many interior scenes with lots of expository talk so the film, despite a brief running time, moves at a sluggish pace without ratcheting up much suspense.But Loretta Young is very beautiful (at 23), poised and completely charming as the wife who knows too much. She, Franchot Tone and Roland Young carry much of the film, but there's good support from Jessie Ralph, Lewis Stone and Henry Daniell (who figures prominently in the film's conclusion).For a story that involves blackmail and murder, it's much too stage bound for comfort, but worth watching to see Loretta Young at her loveliest giving a very capable performance.

...and you may find it so too. Not because the film is bad, but because the film starts out with a truly evil person tormenting a very good person (Loretta Young as dutiful wife Lady Helen Dudley Dearden) relentlessly and even seeming to enjoy it. Lady Helen must pay two thousand pounds to a blackmailer to prevent him from revealing love letters that her husband wrote years before they were married to a woman who was married at the time - to the blackmailer. Lady Helen's husband (Franchot Tone as Sir Alan Dearden) is about to be made attorney general, and any scandal would wreck that chance. So she pays. However, this decision to pay up soon embroils her in a murder case - not as a suspect but as a witness. After she comes forward to tell what she knows to free an innocent man of one murder, she unknowingly implicates her husband in another murder. The blackmailer then reenters her life and torments her some more. Yes, the ending is a bit fantastic, but getting there is an interesting ride with this being a very satisfying thriller. The central theme is how hard it can be to prove a negative and how much people - and the legal system - often want to believe the worst. Hard to believe that Loretta Young is only 23 at this point. She has all the poise and sophistication of a woman quite a bit older than that. But that was true all the way back to her silent days so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I'd recommend this one highly, just don't be surprised if you find yourself hissing at the blackmailer villain in this one like in the old silent days. He really is an awful character.