The Unguarded Hour (1936)

The young wife (Loretta Young) of a barrister (Franchot Tone) with a promising career is being blackmailed by a man (Henry Daniell) who has compromising letters her husband had written to another woman (Aileen Pringle) prior to their marriage. Paying the blackmailer off would seem to have ended the matter but instead it spirals into suspicions, deceit and murder and an innocent man (Dudley Digges) may hang for it. Based on the play by Ladislas Fodor and directed by Sam Wood (A NIGHT AT THE OPERA). An unexpected pleasure, this rather morally complex tale is surprisingly compelling and director Wood keeps the suspense in the forefront. Young is good as the wife caught in a quandary. If she tells what she knows, her husband's career will be ruined. If she doesn't, an innocent man will hang for a crime he didn't commit. I would have preferred a more ambiguous ending where Tone's fate is left up in the air but the movie gives us the expected happy ending. Not a great film by any means but good enough to recommend. With Roland Young, Lewis Stone, Jessie Ralph and E.E. Clive.