Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Fluentiama Perfect cast and a good story

SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Dotbankey A lot of fun.

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....

Neil Doyle 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.

krorie 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.

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.