Tonight's Movie: The Hour Before the Dawn (1944) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray review

It's been a great few weeks for fans of Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake, with a trio of never-on-DVD films released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber.

The newly released Paramount Pictures movies are Ladd's THUNDER IN THE EAST (1952); Ladd and Lake's long-missing final film together, SAIGON (1947); and Lake's World War II spy thriller, THE HOUR BEFORE THE DAWN (1944).

THE HOUR BEFORE THE DAWN was written by Michael Hogan from a Lester Samuels adaptation of a novel by W. Somerset Maugham. Maugham is seen under the opening credits.

The film is a relatively short 74-minute story about the Hetherton family, who live in rural England. Jim (Franchot Tone), a teacher, has been uninterested in shooting since a childhood accident, and when England enters the war he registers as a conscientious objector, going to work for the war effort on a farm.

Jim's brother Roger (John Sutton) is in the RAF, while Roger's wife May (Binnie Barnes), a former actress, returns to performing to entertain the troops.

The family is rounded out by Jim and Roger's father, General Hetherton (Henry Stephenson); Roger and May's son Tommy (David Leland); and Tommy's governess Dora (Lake), an Austrian refugee.

As an alien from an enemy country, Dora is about to be ordered out of the area, which houses RAF bases. Instead, she marries Jim and becomes a citizen.

Unfortunately, there's a problem: Dora is actually an enemy agent helping the Germans.

I found this film entertaining start to finish, thanks to an interesting story and excellent cast. It's an engaging 74 minutes which flies by, though to an extent the short running time may work against fleshing out the characters.

While I quite enjoyed it, it's an imperfect film which could have been better. The central flaw lies with Lake's character, which is not written with any depth; while to an extent Lake's enigmatic persona works well here, between the script and the performance there isn't much there.

I say this as someone who thoroughly enjoys watching Lake and am trying to see all her films; I enjoy her while recognizing her character here is more a token of Nazi evil than a fully rounded persona with some nuances.

The rest of the cast is fine, with Tone apt casting as the pacifist teacher.  Sutton and Barnes have nicely fleshed out supporting roles as a couple whose lighthearted bickering covers their deep feelings for one another.  Stephenson, as always, is terrific, especially when defending Jim's right to his point of view, though he doesn't agree with him.

THE HOUR BEFORE THE DAWN was directed by Frank Tuttle and filmed in black and white by John F. Seitz. The score was by Miklos Rosza.

The supporting cast includes two members of the large Severn family of child actors, Raymond and Ernest. There's more on Raymond and the Severn family in my review of THE SUSPECT (1944) from the same year.

The cast also includes Philip Merivale, Nils Asther, Mary Gordon, Harry Cording, and Donald Stuart.

Kino Lorber's Blu-ray is a new HD master from a 2K scan of the 35mm original fine grain. Most of it looks very good, though sharp-eyed viewers will occasionally notice some lines or softness. Especially considering that this movie has been hard to see for decades, I'm quite happy with the presentation.

Extras of this Special Edition consist of the trailer, mastered in 2K; a gallery of a half-dozen additional trailers for other films available from Kino Lorber; and a commentary track by Paul Talbot. The Blu-ray comes in an attractive cardboard slipcase.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.

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