24 Hours (1931 film)

Last updated

24 Hours
24 hours poster.jpg
Spanish poster
Directed by Marion Gering
Written by Louis Weitzenkorn
Based onTwenty-four Hours, a novel by Louis Bromfield and the play Shattered Glass by Will D. Lengle and Lew Levenson
Starring Clive Brook
Kay Francis
Miriam Hopkins
Regis Toomey
Production
company
Distributed byParamount-Publix Corporation
Release date
  • October 10, 1931 (1931-10-10)
Running time
65-68 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

24 Hours is a 1931 American pre-Code romantic drama film directed by Marion Gering and starring Clive Brook, Kay Francis, Miriam Hopkins and Regis Toomey. It was based on the novel Twenty-Four Hours by Louis Bromfield and the play Shattered Glass by Will D. Lengle and Lew Levenson. In the film, an alcoholic married man is accused of murdering the woman with whom he has been carrying on an affair. The title comes from the fact that the film takes place from 11 pm one night to the same time the following night.

Contents

Plot

At an evening party in New York City, the Towners mourn their failing marriage, then leave separately. The somewhat drunk Jim walks to a bar for some more liquor. Before he arrives, a man is shot to death outside the establishment; those inside hastily carry the body inside and surmise that someone named Tony is responsible. Meanwhile, Fanny is driven home by her lover, David Melbourn. On the way, she breaks up with him, telling him she realizes now that she still loves Jim. However, she plans to leave her husband, thinking she is not good enough for him.

Jim next heads to a nightclub to see his lover, star singer Rosie Duggan. He asks her if it is possible for a man to love two women, then remarks that the snow was red outside the bar. After he leaves, her ex-con husband Tony Bruzzi shows up. He wants her to take him back, but she has him thrown out, though she keeps his gun; she guesses from the red snow that Tony killed someone.

Later, she takes Jim home. He falls asleep on her chaise longue. Then Tony shows up, jealous and determined to kill Jim. She tells him that Jim is not there, but he does not believe her. When she refuses to open a locked door, they struggle and he kills her.

The next morning, Jim wakes up and finds Rosie's body. Meanwhile, Tony hides out at Mrs. Dacklehorst's place, but he is tracked down by Dave the Slapper and his gang; the man Tony shot was part of Dave's mob. Tony demands Mrs. Dacklehorst deliver or mail a letter to his gang, but she betrays him instead, and he is shot dead.

Jim is charged with Rosie's murder. When Fanny shows up at the police station, Jim tells her to divorce him so she will not get entangled in his troubles, but she refuses to do so. Fortunately, fingerprints on a liquor bottle at Rosie's place match Tony's, and Jim is released. The couple reconcile, and Jim promises to stop drinking.

Cast

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Alibi</i> (1929 film) 1929 film by Roland West

Alibi is a 1929 American crime film directed by Roland West. The screenplay was written by West and C. Gardner Sullivan, who adapted the 1927 Broadway stage play, Nightstick, written by Elaine Sterne Carrington, J.C. Nugent, Elliott Nugent, and John Wray.

The House That Shadows Built (1931) is a feature compilation film from Paramount Pictures, made to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the studio's founding in 1912. The film was a promotional film for exhibitors and never had a regular theatrical release.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regis Toomey</span> American actor (1898–1991)

John Francis Regis Toomey was an American film and television actor.

<i>Station West</i> 1948 film by Sidney Lanfield

Station West is a 1948 American Western film directed by Sidney Lanfield and based on a Western novel by Luke Short. Burl Ives plays a small role and sings the following songs on the soundtrack: "A Stranger in Town," "The Sun's Shining Warm," and "A Man Can't Grow Old."

<i>Barbary Coast</i> (film) 1935 film

Barbary Coast is a 1935 American historical Western film directed by Howard Hawks. Shot in black-and-white and set in San Francisco's so-called Barbary Coast during the California Gold Rush, the film combines elements of the Western genre with those of crime, melodrama and adventure. It features a wide range of actors, from hero Joel McCrea to villain Edward G. Robinson, and stars Miriam Hopkins in the leading role as Mary 'Swan' Rutledge. In an early, uncredited appearance, David Niven plays a drunken sailor being thrown out of a bar.

<i>Night World</i> (film) 1932 film

Night World is a 1932 American pre-Code drama film featuring Lew Ayres, Mae Clarke, and Boris Karloff. The supporting cast includes George Raft and Hedda Hopper.

<i>Street of Chance</i> (1930 film) 1930 film

Street of Chance is a 1930 American pre-Code film directed by John Cromwell and starring William Powell, Jean Arthur, Kay Francis and Regis Toomey. Howard Estabrook was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Writing, Achievement.

<i>Fanny by Gaslight</i> (film) 1944 British film starring James Mason

Fanny by Gaslight is a 1944 British drama film, directed by Anthony Asquith and produced by Gainsborough Pictures, set in the 1870s and adapted from a 1940 novel by Michael Sadleir.

<i>The Unholy Three</i> (1930 film) 1930 American melodrama film

The Unholy Three is a 1930 American Pre-Code melodrama directed by Jack Conway and starring Lon Chaney. Its plot involves a crime spree. The film is a sound remake of the silent 1925 film of the same name, with both films based on the novel The Unholy Three, by Tod Robbins.

<i>New York Town</i> 1941 film by Charles Vidor

New York Town is a 1941 American romantic comedy film directed by Charles Vidor and starring Fred MacMurray, Mary Martin, Akim Tamiroff and Robert Preston. It was produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film was written by Lewis Meltzer and an uncredited Preston Sturges based on a story by Jo Swerling.

<i>Shopworn</i> 1932 film

Shopworn is a 1932 American pre-Code romantic drama film directed by Nick Grinde and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Regis Toomey. Written by Jo Swerling and Robert Riskin, based on a story by Sarah Y. Mason, the film is about a poor hardworking waitress who meets and falls in love with a wealthy college student. His mother objects to the union and frames the waitress for a crime she did not commit. After serving her time, the waitress enters show business and becomes a star.

<i>The Tall Target</i> 1951 film by Anthony Mann

The Tall Target is a 1951 American historical crime film directed by Anthony Mann and starring Dick Powell, Paula Raymond and Adolphe Menjou. Powell stars as a police sergeant who tries to stop the assassination of Abraham Lincoln at a train stop as Lincoln travels to his inauguration. It is based on the alleged Baltimore Plot.

<i>Framed</i> (1930 film) 1930 film

Framed is a 1930 American pre-Code crime action film, directed by George Archainbaud, based on a screenplay by Paul Schofield and Wallace Smith. It starred Evelyn Brent, William Holden, Regis Toomey, and Ralf Harolde.

<i>Dark Mountain</i> (film) 1944 film by William A. Berke

Dark Mountain is a 1944 American film noir crime film directed by William Berke. It is also known as Thunderbolt and Thunder Mountain.

<i>Top Gun</i> (1955 film) 1955 film by Ray Nazarro

Top Gun is a 1955 American Western film directed by Ray Nazarro. The plot concerns an ex-gunslinger who arrives in a small town warning of an impending attack by his old gang. The film features Rod Taylor in one of his first American roles.

David Dunbar was an Australian film actor. Dunbar was a prominent actor in American and British silent films, particularly in westerns, but switched to playing more minor roles after the arrival of sound. In later years he appeared mostly in British-themed Hollywood films. He was one of the first film actors beginning his screen career with Pathe Freres, Paris in 1910. Previously he was an actor on the legitimate stage both in Australia, his homeland and in Britain. On 7 March 1926 his wife Blanche was killed in a car collision in the Hollywood Hills. He had one sister, Miriam Kathleen (Strachan) Dunbar who remained in Petersham, New South Wales. Miriam married William Thomas Strachan, the children of that marriage being Miriam Kathleen and William James Strachan. William James (Bill) returned from the Second World War to Australia and settled with his wife Barbara (Grant) Strachan in Sydney and later in Melbourne, Victoria, bringing up three children, Susan Marion, William Grant and Scott James Strachan. The Strachan family included Graeme Ronald (Shirley) Strachan, a media personality and lead singer of the 1970s rock group Skyhooks. Miriam Kathleen married Ronald George Fordham, who perished as a prisoner of war in Malaya during the Second World War. Miriam Kathleen died in 1944, leaving Brian Ronald and Joan Fordham.

<i>Touchdown</i> (1931 film) 1931 film

Touchdown is a 1931 American pre-Code football film directed by Norman Z. McLeod and starring Richard Arlen, Peggy Shannon, Jack Oakie and Regis Toomey. Jim Thorpe and Herman Brix appear uncredited as unbilled football players.

<i>Law of the Tropics</i> 1941 film by Ray Enright

Law of the Tropics is a 1941 American drama film directed by Ray Enright and starring Constance Bennett, Jeffrey Lynn and Regis Toomey. By the time Bennett made the film, her career was in steep decline. It was produced and distributed by Warner Brothers.

<i>Scandal Sheet</i> (1931 film) 1931 film

Scandal Sheet is a 1931 American pre-Code crime film directed by John Cromwell and written by Oliver H.P. Garrett, Vincent Lawrence and Max Marcin. The film stars George Bancroft, Kay Francis, Clive Brook, Regis Toomey, Lucien Littlefield, Gilbert Emery and Harry Beresford. The film was released on January 31, 1931, by Paramount Pictures.

<i>The Man Who Invented Christmas</i> (film) 2017 film directed by Bharat Nalluri

The Man Who Invented Christmas is a 2017 Christmas biographical comedy-drama film about Charles Dickens directed by Bharat Nalluri and written by Susan Coyne. Based on Les Standiford's 2008 non-fiction book of the same name, the joint Canadian and Irish production stars Dan Stevens, Christopher Plummer, and Jonathan Pryce, and follows Dickens (Stevens) as he conceives and writes his 1843 novella A Christmas Carol.