The Unguarded Hour (1936) User Reviews

Go Loretta

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 16 January 2012]

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.

At first it was hard to watch this...

[AlsExGal · 8/10 · 8 January 2011]

...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.

Elegant and entertainment

[mart-45 · 8/10 · 26 February 2008]

Loretta Young always managed to bring a certain cool quality to her movies and has come to epitomize the feminine beauty and elegance of the 1930s. It's hard to tell if The Unguarded Hour would've turned out quite as well without an actress of her charm to divert the viewer from the plot holes. The story itself is very entertaining and amusing, once you come to accept their motives and not ask questions such as "why on earth doesn't she tell everything to her husband and get it over with?" But of course, a woman of such beauty and elegance (there, I said it again) can't be wrong, can she? And we wouldn't have had a movie to start with.

If you manage to get a hold of this rarely seen gem which hasn't been released on DVD as yet, you're quite sure to spend a very enjoyable time, trying to guess the perpetrator of the villainy and feasting your eyes on the rosy cheeks and elegant gowns of the damsel in distress.

87 minutes of unguarded entertainment

[krorie · 7/10 · 7 January 2006]

The ever graceful and dynamic Loretta Young had a deservedly long movie career from the silent era until the early 1950's. She then turned to television with the popular "Letter to Loretta," where she is well remembered for her entrance sashaying through a door wearing a swirling skirt. "The Unguarded Hour" is from her early talky days in Hollywood before going on to win an Oscar for her fantastic performance in "The Farmer's Daughter."

Loretta plays one of her usual roles as Lady Helen Dudley Dearden a dutiful wife who stands by her husband, the debonair Franchot Tone as Sir Alan Dearden who is on his way to the top of the legal profession in England about to be appointed the youngest attorney general ever. Then appears a blackmailer Hugh Lewis played with his usual aura of chicanery by Henry Daniell. Lady Dearden must pay for some indiscreet old love letters written by Sir Alan to a lover before he met m'lady or the letters will be made public possibly destroying him professionally. Lady Dearden unwittingly finds herself a mystery woman in one of her husband's murder cases. The plot thickens until Sir Alan himself becomes a suspect in the same case. All must be unraveled with a few surprises along the way before the somewhat hasty ending to a well made film.

As with most movies based on plays, there is too much verbiage from time to time but director Sam Wood is able to make things move faster than many similar type vintage mysteries from the same period.

Flat our fun...

[inspectorfernack · 6/10 · 7 January 2011]

There are many times that "The Unguarded Hour" feels like a stage play on film, but is that so bad? There are long scenes in which not much happens, but within which certain plot points are revealed. Is that so bad?

No. Not at all!

This movie sparkles. Roland Young puts in one of his best performances, particularly evinced by the "what if" scene in which he questions Tone over what happened on "the night in question."

Loretta Young is, well, young and alluring -- and she can flat out act, too.

And Henry Daniell is an absolutely perfect scoundrel. He doesn't overplay his part, but he is scary nonetheless.

This is a beautifully constructed film..with just the right "Tone."

Great Fun

[Michael_Elliott · 28 February 2008]

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.

Interesting courtroom mystery is too talky to be really suspenseful...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 6 January 2012]

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.

Loretta Young was Beautiful

[whpratt1 · 7/10 · 28 August 2007]

This 1936 film is a great film Classic with outstanding veteran actors who made this into a great dramatic story concerning Lady Helen Dudley Dearden, (Loretta Young) who tries to protect her husband from a past relationship with a young woman. Sir Alan Dearden (Franchot Tone) is an outstanding lawyer who is about to be chosen as Attorney General and his wife Lady Helen is being blackmailed by Hugh Lewis (Henry Daniell) with a bunch of love letters that Sir Alan had sent to this woman. The story gets quite involved with a man being accused of killing his wife and also another murder of a woman Sir Alan had an affair with. There is a very tricky ending to this film that you will not be able to figure out until the very ending of this film. Roland Young, (William "Bunny" Jeffers ) gave a great supporting role to this great film classic.

Like This Overall and Would Revisit

[misctidsandbits · 7/10 · 30 December 2012]

Just watched this one, though I've had it a while. Was surprised and pleased. It's interesting to see Ms. Young with this group of contract players, on loan from her home studio. Makes we wonder what MGM would have done with her had she been contracted there. As it is, she is her soft and sincere persona here, doing well enough with Tone. As for the plot line, I'm glad by reading other reviews to find that I'm not the only one left scratching my head at the rather abrupt wrap-up. The quick introduction of a trap at the 11th hour brought maybe a too swift resolution to this rather complex embroilment. As soon as milady misidentified the picture, I got lost and basically stayed that way. One viewer clue came when hubby requested to talk with his wife alone after his official confrontation, but one had to think back to that later trying to map out the circuitous route. Just too much came too fast and too pat. But, even Dame Agatha threw you a loop now and again; but not to the extent of this one. However, as it goes along, there's a prime treat in Roland Young, playing the impish, pleasingly inappropriate friend of the lead couple. He was so much fun.

This should have been better given the basic plot.

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 12 February 2012]

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.

Well constructed tale of blackmail

[vincentlynch-moonoi · 7/10 · 31 January 2013]

TCM has been playing a lot of Loretta Young films lately, and I've enjoyed many of them while dismissing a few. This is one of the best.

You may think you've seen a similar story before, and you probably have if you like old movies. But I think this is one of the earliest of this type of plot -- a young English barrister may become Attorney General, but his wife is blackmailed about his past...which she keeps a secret. While giving the blackmailer his money and retrieving incriminating letters, she becomes a witness who could save another man from being convicted of an unrelated murder. Of course, it is her husband that is trying the case! Unlike most 1930s mysteries, this one has some pretty sophisticated plot twists, although I didn't care for the final plot twist...though it didn't detract from the film.

Loretta Young is beautiful and superb in her acting here. Kudos to her playing the young wife who is torn between her husband's career and saving an innocent man. The husband is played by Franchot Tone -- an actor that had his ups and downs -- this is one of the "ups". Again, kudos. The rest of the cast isn't particularly memorable, although they do their jobs. Most notable perhaps are Lewis Stone and Roland Young, although they aren't given much to do of any importance during the first half of the film...but then become critical to the story in the second half.

I liked this film and highly recommend it!

I couldn't believe it.

[F Gwynplaine MacIntyre · 3/10 · 29 December 2004]

'The Unguarded Hour' takes its title from the existentialist premise (expounded in this film's dialogue) that every man's life contains an interval in which circumstances conspire to deprive him of all his defences, leaving him a pawn of fate. How true, how true.

I'm a great fan of the films of Sam Wood, a craftsman who remains sadly underrated. Even film historian William K Everson insisted on knocking Wood and calling him untalented. Contemporary reports indicate that Wood was a racist and an unpleasant man who founded some very dubious political causes, yet his films consistently show solid proficiency and some subtle symbolism. Regrettably, 'The Unguarded Hour' contains some howlingly unlikely plot twists, a few extra-long coincidences and some very implausible motivations, including one plot twist at the end that's fatally contrived.

SPOILERS COMING. Sir Alan Dearden is a promising young barrister, of whom great things are expected. He is currently prosecuting Samuel Metford, a meek little man charged with pushing his wife off the white cliffs of Dover. Oddly, the trial drags on for many days even though there are no witnesses. Metford's pathetic defence is that he warned his wife to keep away from the cliff's edge, and an unidentified woman passed by as he said this. But the woman can't be located, so Metford has no witness. Sir Alan confides all this to his beautiful wife Lady Helen.

The unknown woman is in fact Lady Helen. Sir Alan has been blackmailed by Lewis, a scoundrel who possesses letters written to the oddly named Diana Roggers ten years before he married Lady Helen. If those letters were to resurface now, the embarrassment would put paid to Sir Alan's career. When Lady Helen passed the Metfords, she was en route to paying Lewis £2,000 for the letters. Now she daren't come forward, lest the information come out. (Amazingly, she won't even tell her husband!) Matters get worse when extremely contrived circumstances make Sir Alan a suspect in a new murder. Lady Helen wants to clear him but she can't. Then, at the end, Sir Alan is cleared by the unlikeliest person in this film, the one who has the most to gain if Sir Alan is *not* cleared.

'The Unguarded Hour' is entertainingly told but is a complete load of cobblers. If Loretta Young weren't so beautiful, I would never have sat through this rubbish. The film boasts some excellent production values, and quite a few of those great supporting actors from Hollywood's golden age. Henry Daniell is especially hissable as the blackmailer. But this is implausible rubbish. I'll rate 'The Unguarded Hour' 3 points out of 10.

well-crafted thriller with a couple of neat twists...

[Sleepy-17 · 1 November 2003]

Great dialogue, the beautiful and sexy Loretta, Henry Daniell at his sleazy best, Roland Young with his gay-friend-who-flirts-with-the-wife quips, a plot that keeps you guessing: like many an entertaining film, the parts are more than the sum. So much fun that its unbelievable ending just seems out of place. Its source is one of those clever stage mysteries made for the Middle Class. Most of Sam Wood's movies are pretty good; it's not that far from the Marx Brothers to this.

Very good movie

[analogdino · 7/10 · 10 August 2017]

Most entertaining movie. Watched recently on TCM. Good innovative plot, if a bit convoluted. Some fine acting... Never a dull moment... Very good court scenes with good dialogue. London of the 1930'a well captured, particularly the cars, streets and traffic, also very good house interiors. Recommended for a step back in time....

great premise

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 24 August 2023]

Barrister Sir Alan Dearden (Franchot Tone) and his wife Lady Helen Dearden (Loretta Young) get blackmailed. He is on track to becoming the youngest Attorney General in England. The blackmailer has his love letters for someone else. While secretly paying it off, Helen happens upon a loving couple near a cliff. Later on, Alan is prosecuting that man for pushing his wife off the cliff. Helen could testify for the man but that would risk her husband's reputation.

This is a great premise. This is adapted from a play and sometimes this does feel like a play. While this hasn't had a modern remake, the basic premise is very much the classic falsely accused story. The fun for this one is the symmetry in the two cases although I would change the second case. It needs to tie up with the first case more closely.

Word Weary and Weighted Loretta Young Lost in the Verbiage

[LeonLouisRicci · 6/10 · 2 April 2015]

Yes, Loretta Young was Beautiful (Clark Gable obviously thought so), and She Had a Screen Presence and Acting Abilities. But Her Turn Here is Overshadowed by a Heavily Worded and Drawn Out Script that Makes its 87 Minute Running Time Feel Twice that Long.

The Scene where the Hypothetical Crime is Laid Out Between Franchois Tone and Roland Young is Laborious and Irritating. Henry Daniel Makes for a Slimy Villain, but Miss Young's Beauty and Ability are All but Lost Behind this Melodramatic Courtroom Caper that by the End there are So Many Loose Ends and Misdirections Tied Up that it is Breathtaking.

Overall, Worth a Watch for Loretta Young Fans, but Don't Expect Anything Noteworthy, and for those Liking Stage Play Personas and Wordy, but Hardly Witty Dialog Displays. It's Tense in Spots but Tenaciously Chatty.

Parallels of life

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 10 January 2017]

Loretta Young was borrowed from 20th Century Fox to appear opposite Franchot Tone in this British based drama about a rising young and titled attorney played by Tone who is expecting an appointment from the Crown as a new attorney general. Of course that will happen upon conclusion of the case he is prosecuting now of Dudley Digges accused of murdering his wife.

In the meantime Tone's wife gets an intrusive visit at a dinner party by Henry Daniell. It seems as though he's in possession of some letters that Tone wrote to his wife indicating a nasty affair. But in the tradition of the old badger game Daniell at his sneering best is willing to take a payoff.

What happens is that the wife of Daniell winds up dead and it's Tone looking good for it because he can't come up with an alibi. This strangely parallels the situation Tone has in court with Digges who cannot confirm his own alibi when his own wife is killed.

The blend of British and American players seem to work well here as people like Tone and Lewis Stone who plays the Scotland Yard Inspector with their classical training fit well with the players of Hollywood's British colony.

This could have been a lot better though. The Unguarded Hour seems poised to jump into comedy especially when Roland Young is on the screen. But it never quite makes it. Still Young gets a few droll lines in as everybody's favorite house guest.

Fans of the stars and some of the most well known character players from Hollywood's golden age should approve.

Endless Talk

[boblipton · 5/10 · 28 August 2023]

Franchot Tone and Loretta Young are a happily married young couple. He's a rising King's Counsel, rumored to be the next Attorney General, and she's Loretta Young. But he's prosecuting Dudley Digges for the murder of his wife, and Miss Young insists he's innocent. Between that and the exhausting duties of attending baptisms and playing bridge, how long before they crack?

Director Sam Wood was a capable house director who could handle anything from a Marx Brothers comedy to a soap opera to Hemingway, but there's little he can do here with a script that non-stop talk from beginning to end. Roland Young as does his bet mugging as the family friend 'Bunny', but this one is deadly dull in its straightforward handling of the stage play. With Lewis Stone, Jessie Relph, Henry Daniell, and Robert Greig stretching himself to play a butler.