The Unguarded Hour

1936 "Little things May Wreck Your Love Affair!"
6.6| 1h27m| en| More Info
Released: 10 April 1936 Released
Producted By: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

A blackmailer tries to stop a woman from revealing evidence that could save a condemned man.

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Reviews

BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment
Wordiezett So much average
UnowPriceless hyped garbage
SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.
analogdino 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....
Mart Sander 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.
whpratt1 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.
F Gwynplaine MacIntyre '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.