24 Hours

Much of the problem with "24 Hours" might be because of when it was made. Many of the films from 1929-31 are a bit stilted and slow compared to ones made just a few years later. And, stilted and slow is definitely the way I'd sum up this film. This is really weird, however, as the film is filled with murders (one is particularly vivid and brutal), adultery and more....but the characters seem unperturbed and behave pretty much like like they are bored or talking about stamp collecting. This is definitely true of the leads, Kay Francis and Clive Brook...a couple who are cheating on each other yet there is no energy at all when they admit this to each other. There are some sparks from Regis Toomey and Miriam Hopkins...but not enough to recommend this rather boring film. And how they could make this plot boring is beyond me! The film could have definitely used an infusion of energy and zip!!

Where else but the precodes could a husband and wife reconcile over a murder rap?

The film starts out showing a big city as the camera pans over the skyscrapers during a snowy night as the clock strikes 11PM. Unhappily married Jim Towner (Clive Brook) and Fanny Towner (Kay Francis) are leaving a small quiet party held by one of their society swells. They talk of why they are so unhappy and...explain nothing. It seems like gibberish. But whatever the reason, Fanny is carrying on with a fellow rich person who looks rather sickly and sits under a blanket. He is hardly sexy. Fanny decides to break it off and try to work it out with Jim. I don't think she is sacrificing that much.

Meanwhile Jim leaves the apartment house, talks a bit to the doorman, heads over on foot to a speakeasy to have a drink, and then over to "Rosie's" named after his girlfriend, Rosie Duggan (Miriam Hopkins). He has some more drinks. Rosie takes him back to her place and puts him to bed on the couch. The next morning Jim awakens and finds Rosie lying across her bed. obviously murdered. He realizes that everyone will think he murdered her - obviously. He tries to sneak out, but he is seen, recognized, and arrested for Rosie's murder.

Why is this a small world? Well, the doorman Jim was talking to was Rosie's brother. He saw Jim leave Rosie's building when he came over to tell her about his new baby. The speakeasy Jim stopped at? There had just been a gangland killing before Jim got there, and the killer was Rosie's estranged husband, brilliantly played by Regis Toomey who is at his whiny sniveling best. He is apparently some kind of small town hood, and the murder now has the big time hoods on his case.

The great little touches in this film? A hungry woman digs through some trash cans as Jim trudges in the snow during the blizzard towards the speakeasy. He almost does nothing, but even through the fog of alcohol that he is in he gives the woman some money, remembering "noblesse oblige" just a little. Miriam Hopkins is a revelation as Rosie, a torch singer who sexily belts out a song trying to make portly 50ish men feel desirable as she runs her fingers through her own wild hair. Finally there is Lucille La Verne as Toomey's character's landlady. Note to Toomey's character- maybe if you desperately need help from someone you shouldn't call that person an old hag. She has a small part - smaller than Toomey's, but she makes quite an impression.

This is 66 minutes of precode heaven. I highly recommend it.

In 24 HOURS, Clive Brook drinks, Miriam Hopkins sings, Kay Francis suffers, and Regis Toomey acts. Only two of them will survive to the end of this engrossing movie. Can those two find happiness, or at least a little recognition for their fine performances?

It's always a surprise to find a gem hiding in a shady corner of the internet, and distressing to find that the only way to discover this one is through a wanton copyright violator (now shut down). In this case -- I think the reason for the obscurity is lack of TCM exposure, and a copyright owner who has not found the hook to release an 83 year old movie, because the director isn't Wellman, Hawks, Lubitsch, Ford, or Curtiz, and the stars, while certainly well enough loved by fans of the pre-code, don't get a lot of notice today.

This is a real shame, in this case, because this one is a real find, helped by the very strong acting and a plot with a strong strain of melancholy, and sense of doom which. with the striking photography, suggests film noir. Colin Clive and Regis Toomey are responsible for a lot of arid celluloid, but in this case, the director has drawn out strong performances out of both of them. Kay Francis delivers a good performance out of the one thankless role (the suffering wife), and Miriam Hopkins does real well with the nightclub singer who has more personality than voice.

I'm sure the movie will reappear again -- as long as copyright owners bury their lest well-known product -- violators of 80 year old copyrights will flourish. But, really, this one deserves a reissue in a shining new print. Olive Films? Criterion Collection? TCM? Universal? How about it?

The other reviewers were on the mark on this one. It is an excellent Pre-Code drama. It catches you from the opening credits, superimposed over theatrical-looking models of the New York City skyline. You see the time on a big clock tower, and the 24 hours of the title starts there. All the action fits into that time frame, and the film ends with a shot of the same tower, with the same time as at the beginning. They sure fit a lot of excitement into that one-day period.

Brook and Francis are the stars of the film, but Hopkins really steals the show as the nightclub singer. You often read of Hopkins' difficult side- that she wasn't easy to work with, etc. And she and Bette Davis seem to have had a real hate-fest going (but, of course, Davis was reputed to be difficult, too). Whatever the truth of all that, I have always liked Hopkins a lot. She gave some wonderful performances, especially in that Pre-Code era. Her Ivy in "Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" is probably her best, but she was good in everything. "The Story of Temple Drake," this film, and many others. And she was great in comedy films, too. See "The Smiling Lieutenant" and "Trouble in Paradise," for example. The fact that such a master as Ernst Lubitsch put her in a number of his films says something.

Kay Francis was always good in these weepie kinds of roles. She really patented the part of the woman who is unhappy in her marriage, and looks for love elsewhere. This part is along the lines of the many films she made for Paramount and Warners, and she's very effective and believable here. I have mixed feelings about Clive Brook as an actor (as a man, he was reportedly a great guy). In many of his parts, he is the stiffest of stiff-upper lip gentlemen. As in "Shanghai Express." You kind of want to shake him, to get some kind of reaction out of him. But he was very popular at that time, and people seemed to like him. He could be very good, when he broke that frozen mask, and showed some emotion. He has a touching scene here, when he finds Hopkins the morning after his drunken adventures.

Lucille La Verne, one of the all-time great character actresses, is wonderful here, as always. She had such a distinctive face and voice. You can see why Disney used her as the model and voice of the witch in "Snow White." She was good in everything, from the woman who hides, and cheats, the down-and-out Rico in "Little Caesar," to her iconic part as the pal of Madame De Farge in "A Tale of Two Cities." You know, one of the ladies who sits knitting at the base of the guillotine, cackling and jeering as the aristocrats have their heads cut off. That part is probably the one everyone remembers her for. Her bio on IMDb.com is very interesting- a longtime legitimate stage actress, etc.

Director Gering's bio is interesting, too. A member of a Soviet delegation to the States, who stayed, and made a career for himself. He made some interesting films, too. "The Devil and the Deep," "Thirty Day Princess," and some other excellent films.

These early-Talkie films are so interesting, for a myriad of reasons. Aside from having great actors, production values, good directors, etc., they are also interesting for their historical and sociological insights into those times. It really is like peering through a kind of time- machine window, as if you're looking in on people from another era, or almost from another dimension. It really is fascinating. I also think these early sound movies, with their short running times, are like filmed short stories. Most of them run a little over an hour, and they manage to fit so much into that brief time. New movie makers could learn a lot on how to cut to the chase in such a short time, and still make a good film.

Anyway, check it out. This is a fascinating Pre-Code film, almost a blueprint for the late 40s Film Noirs. And it has some great performances.

There are some terrific gems in Paramount's library from 1930-34 that are simply turning to dust. It's a shame they're not on video. 24 Hours qualifies for an unqualified hit on all counts. It's moody, almost "noir" feel is fascinating. It's a visual treasure. Adulterous couple Clive Brook (his stiff, inebriated self) and Kay Francis (captivating here in one of her subtle, effective performances)survive an harrowing 24 Hours in which Brooks' lover (Miriam Hopkins steals the show as a lively chanteuse) manages to get bumped off by her maniacal husband (Regis Toomey). It's tastefully handled, yet gripping in its understatement. The photography is fluid -- this seems more like a 1932 film than a 31 -- it's very mobile, edited nicely. Try to get a copy of this from a collector. You won't be disappointed.