The Shining Hour (1938)

the leading man is my tpye

Good movie but grossly overrated

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

Where else do you get MGM's Joan Crawford, Robert Young, Melvyn Douglas and Margaret Sullavan together in the same picture? And where else do you get the added bonus of Hattie McDaniel and Fay Bainter in support of these leads? It certainly is a Shining Hour for all of them. What a pity, then, that this picture is not more well known, because in this writer's opinion, it certainly deserves to be.And when was the last time that a film made after the production code allowed someone to get away with a major crime? That is exactly what Bainter's character does when she is allowed to go unpunished for arson. Meanwhile, Crawford's vixen will probably take up with one of the farm hands when she gets back from her honeymoon with Douglas. And Young's character will probably never stop lusting after Crawford, even though he is married to Sullavan. Yes, this is grand melodrama from a grand Hollywood studio, performed with zest by a grand cast.

High class soap opera with the MGM sheen and a cast of great actors. Joan's a respectable if restless performer who marries Melvyn Douglas on a whim and goes back to his family home where trouble awaits and that's when the fun begins. The story of family animosity and dangerous attraction isn't anything new but as presented here by these super professionals and director Borzage they find ways to make it compelling. Joan is unquestionably the star of this enterprise and she holds her own with the strong cast that surrounds her while looking glamorous and suffering nobly.Fay Bainter turns her usual warm and understanding persona on its ear as a harridan twisted by jealousy and bitterness. Robert Young turns in good work as a bit of a weasel and Melvyn Douglas although Joan titular co-star really doesn't have much to do and is absent from a good deal of the film but he does what is required of him with his usual skill. The marvelous Hattie McDaniel has a tiny role as Joan's maid with the improbable name of Belvedere and injects a small dose of levity into the heavy going dramatics.Good though they may be and Joan is the queen of this little opus they are all outshone by one of their fellow actors. Margaret Sullavan as Young wife gives a performance of such quiet beauty she wipes anyone else off the screen whenever she's on it. An actress of great skill and subtle intensity she makes her Judy a character that seems far more real and relatable than anybody else on screen. Her output was small, only 16 films in total, but she always had a vivid and alive presence on screen. If you enjoy dramas with an adult, if a tad melodramatic, outlook enacted by talented performers this is for you.

What a waste of talent. This film had such potential, the cast is excellent and the story idea is good. Glamorous city girl Olivia (Crawford) marries "country farmer" (who farms in suits?) Henry Linden (Douglas), from an old family. They move to Wisconsin to live with the Linden family, supposedly dour spinster sister Hannah (Bainter), lifeless brother David (Young) and his loving wife Judy (Sullavan).Before you know it, David and Olivia are apparently, passionately, in love. How did this love develop? Nothing real is shown; Henry and Olivia arrive in Wisconsin and suddenly, love! No tension, buildup, or even scenes between the two until suddenly, David proclaims it! And the great fuss that is made about Hannah's hatred of Olivia, it is not really shown and developed either, just some rather mild comments and barbs from Hannah, directed at Olivia. No tension between the characters at all. It is a jarring moment, during the fire, when Hannah looks gleefully on as the fire burns and then screams crazily at Henry. Next, the siblings are together and all is well between Henry and Hannah, she is smiling at him and nice to Olivia. What? It's all just out of the blue and doesn't fit.Sullavan's character Judy is the most interesting at first, she is realistic about her relationship with her husband David. She doesn't believe Hannah initially, that something is happening between Olivia and David. Why should she, the film doesn't develop any attraction between the two! In the end, Judy is the one martyred, as so many films then must have a suffering female. Yes, sacrifice her man, for love.And then the movie ends with Olivia joining her city friend who was only in the movie for a few moments? This movie is disjointed and has no real development of the characters and story lines. Terrible waste of talent and potential.

Joan Crawford disrupts a family in "The Shining Hour," a 1938 film also starring Melvyn Douglas, Margaret Sullavan, Robert Young, and Fay Bainter.Crawford is Olivia Reilly, a New York City dancer who works in a nightclub with a partner doing an act sort of modeled on Astaire and Rogers though it's clearly down several levels. Melvyn Douglas is Henry Linden, a gentleman farmer who wants to take her away from all this to Wisconsin, and sick of her present life, she marries him. Arriving on the farm, she finds herself hated by Henry's sister, Hannah (Bainter), lusted after by Henry's brother David (Young) and loved and envied by David's wife Judy (Sullavan). Before long, David is making overt passes, Henry has figured out David is in love with his wife, and in spite of herself, Judy begins to suspect the same thing.This film is a little overdone, as it seems like the tension in the house never lets up. David always looks miserable, Judy always looks nervous, Olivia is always trying to be nice except when she's trading barbs with Hannah, and Hannah is a bitch. How any of them stood one another for more than ten minutes is a miracle. We are never allowed to see any happiness. Also, the entire end of the film is a mess -- Judy takes a ridiculous step to make everything right, but it all goes in the opposite direction. The most absurd part of the whole film, without giving anything away, is that one of the characters ends up wearing bandages - covering their nose and mouth with only the eyes showing. Now, how is anyone supposed to breathe like that? How did the actor breathe, in fact? Joan Crawford looks beautiful and is very good in her role as a city slicker who wants to love her husband and environment but is finding it difficult. Tall, elegant Melvyn Douglas, who thirty years later would emerge as one of the truly great actors in cinema, does a wonderful job as the even-tempered one of the family. For so many years, he played the family friend, the family lawyer, the other man - how, with all that magnificent talent, did he ever stand it? Robert Young is fine as David, though Margaret Sullavan is so nice and sweet and so much in love with him that he's somewhat unlikable for coming on to Olivia. As the vicious Hannah, Fay Bainter is effective, though I'd have thrown her out of the house.All in all, it's just okay.