Tonight's Movie: The Shining Hour (1938) - A Warner Archive Blu-ray Review

The MGM melodrama THE SHINING HOUR (1938), directed by Frank Borzage, was just released on Blu-ray by the Warner Archive Collection.

This film, scripted by Jane Murfin and Ogden Nash from a 1934 play by Keith Winter, is frankly overcooked and silly...and yet, it's 76 highly watchable minutes.

I first saw the movie in 2010 and was curious what I'd think returning to it after 14 years. I landed in pretty much the same place: Joan Crawford is engaging, and Margaret Sullavan and Melvyn Douglas are sympathetic, while Robert Young and Fay Bainter play absolute rats.

That said, the movie is over and done very quickly, and it's such a marvelous exemplar of MGM glamour, from the Adrian costumes to the Franz Waxman score to the shimmering black and white cinematography of George Folsey, that it really begs to be seen by fans of the cast and the era.

Crawford plays a glamorous New York nightclub dancer who agrees to marry Henry Linden (Douglas), a gentleman farmer from Wisconsin. She doesn't love Henry but she's very fond of him and wants to get married and live a quieter life.  Little does she know...

While Henry's sister-in-law Judy (Sullavan) welcomes Olivia to the family home, his sister Hannah (Bainter) and brother David (Young) are anything but pleasant. David's feelings eventually change from hate to attraction, to Judy's dismay, but Hannah's behavior grows worse and worse.

It's strongly implied that Hannah's attachment to her brothers is what might be termed "unnatural," and she causes no end of trouble. She's tolerated David's marriage to Judy, the local girl he grew up with, but she's determined to devastate Henry's relationship for Olivia for no logical reason whatsoever.

As I noted in my original 2010 review, it's rather amazing that the movie ends with Hannah pouring coffee rather than being taken to jail or a psychiatric hospital, as she's really that disturbed!

Crawford, on the other hand, is at her most "movie star appealing" in this; indeed, it's one of the films which changed my feelings about her from dislike to admiration. Despite my dissatisfaction with much of the plot, the film is worth seeing for her and the previously mentioned MGM glamour.

The supporting cast includes Allyn Joslyn, Hattie McDaniel, Charles Coleman, Frank Puglia, Frank Albertson, Granville Bates, George Chandler, and Bess Flowers, spotted as a nurse near the end of the movie.

This film was previously released by the Warner Archive Collection on DVD.  The new Blu-ray print is a 2024 1080p HD master from a 4K scan of the best preservations elements available. It looks very good.

Extras consist of the trailer; a radio program, GOOD NEWS OF 1939; and the cartoons PORKY'S FIVE AND TEN (1937), LOVE AND CURSES (1938) and THE SNEEZING WEASEL (1938).

Thanks to the Warner Archive for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray. Warner Archive Blu-rays may be ordered from Movie Zyng, Amazon, and other online retailers.

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