"24 Hours" is a well-produced precode with a great cast, including Clive Brook, Kay Francis, Miriam Hopkins, Regis Toomey, and Lucille Laverne. Seeing Regis Toomey this young was a shock.
The film, as you might guess, takes place in a 24-hour period and we see the clock start the 24 hours and finish it. There's the added effect of snow.
Brook and a glamorous Francis are an unhappily married couple, Jim and Fanny Towner. They both admit they are miserable; Jim, drunk, leaves and walks in the snow. As he's walking, he sees a murder. He stops in a bar and drinks more and then heads to see Rosie (Hopkins), a nightclub singer. Her husband Tony (Toomey) shows up but she holds him off and takes Jim to her place so he can sleep it off.
The outraged Tony breaks in and kills her accidentally. When he realizes she's dead, he becomes terrified and runs.
Jim wakes up in the morning and finds Hopkins dead. He's arrested for murder. When Francis reads about his arrest, she rushes to the police station.
As good as some of the actors are, Miriam Hopkins has the best role and makes the most of it. She sings two great songs looks floosy-ish but great. She is one of the most underrated actresses in film history. Everyone is good, with a great turn by another unsung actress, Lucille Laverne.
Despite being on the slow side, and some of the actors lacking energy, these films are valuable for showing us life and mores, in this case 84 years ago. Plays, films, and movies were written about the upper class - with the depression and writers like Odets, that would soon change, and the common man would take over.
