Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The Shining Hour was adapted from a Broadway play that ran for a few months in 1934. Not one of the better works I've seen but at that time the studios were still buying anything they could to have words for talking pictures.Joan Crawford plays a dancer and one good thing about The Shining Hour is that we get to see her dancing which is how she started in film. She's just married prosperous Melvyn Douglas of the Linden family of Wisconsin. The Lindens are farm folk, in fact Douglas is a lobbyist for said interest. Taking the new bride home to Wisconsin, Crawford arouses the interest in brother Robert Young, develops a friendship with Young's wife Margaret Sullavan and gets on the wrong side of the eldest, spinster sister Fay Bainter.Bainter's character rang true for whatever reasons she just dislikes Crawford and throws her the needle on all occasions. She's one of those miserable characters who minds everyone's business but their own.Sullavan's character is a lot like Melanie Hamilton in Gone With The Wind. Olivia DeHavilland made Melanie work in her film, but try as she may Sullavan's character came off as an unrealistic goody two shoes. In fact The Shining Hour in its dynamics comes off as the quadrilateral romance that Gone With The Wind does, but far far less effectively.Raymond Massey played Robert Young's part on Broadway. I really couldn't see that.Fans of the four stars should like this, but it's Fay Bainter who comes off best.

Shining Hour opens with David (Robert Taylor) arriving in town for the wedding of his brother, played by Melvyn Douglas. What a CO-lection of big ol stars - Joan Crawford is Olivia Riley, bride to be, and Joan had gotten her teeth fancied up by now. Of course, she gives David (Taylor) one of her signature slaps about 17 minutes in. Margaret Sullavan is Judy, David's wife, and she hits it off with Olivia right away. Even later in the film, she has an odd, strong friendship with Olivia. She is so sweet and friendly in this one, much different than her role in "Shop around the Corner". (M. Sullavan has such an interesting story. Sometime check out her bio on IMDb... even her husbands were bigshots; didn't end well; died of "accidental" drug overdose at age fifty.) Hattie McDaniel is the maid Belvedere, and there are several jokes at her expense, but she will have the last laugh in Gone with the Wind! Fay Bainter is the strange, serious sister "Hannah", who likes things just the way they are, and doesn't seem to accept Olivia. Hannah goes out of her way to be nasty to her every chance she gets. Clearly, Hannah has emotional issues, and Henry is the only member of the family that will stand up to her. As someone has pointed out, the original play ended SO differently than the film, but this was the LATE 1930s, so the Hays code was in full force, and everything had to be whitewashed and subdued from around 1934 to 1950. David seems to be getting too cozy with Olivia, and Hannah (and others) are starting to notice. I'm guessing the scene where Olivia is up on a ladder, and flirts with Benny was also originally much naughtier than we see in the film. It's a story of family, secrets, sacrifice, proper appearances. Good strong script, good acting. They pack a lot into 76 minutes. When its done, it seems like it was much longer than that. I'm really surprised that currently, this one only has 6 stars out of 10 on IMDb.Directed by Frank Borzage, who had already won two Oscars, a silent and a talkie. Borzage was the very first to win an Oscar for Best Director.

Joan Crawford plays the role of Oliva Riley, a dance hall gal who has been around the block quit a few times and meets up with a certain guy. That guy is Melvyn Douglas, (Henry Linden) ,"Once Upon a Tractor",'65, who is very wealthy and falls madly in love with Oliva and brings her into his world of large homes and one very unhappy sister. Hattie McDaniel,(Belvidere),"Gone With the Wind" gives a great supporting role as the maid to Oliva Riley. Oh, yes, Robert Young(David Linden),"The Half Breed",'is married but also seems to have eyes for Oliva along with a teenage boy who plays the trumpet. This is truly a great cast of veteran actors who contributed a great deal to the silver screen of Hollywood.

It's soap opera, but it is good soap opera, with several good performances in it.Joan Crawford is a Broadway dancing star, helped on her way up by Allan Joslyn. Joslyn would like it to be the start of a marriage, but his cynical frame of mind is not what Crawford can accept (outside of friendship). She meets wealthy Wisconsin gentleman farmer Melvin Douglas, and he gets her to agree to marry him (Joslyn is uncertain about the wisdom of the move, not only from self-interest but from concern that Crawford will be a fish out of water). Another party who is troubled by the marriage is Douglas's brother Robert Young, who thinks Crawford will be too like her friends. Despite this Young and Douglas marry, and soon are in Wisconsin. They bring with them Hattie MacDaniel, Crawford's smart maid.(A small point about the film - MacDaniel had not gotten her Oscar yet for GONE WITH THE WIND but there are moments when the camera is concentrating on her, and when she is involved in scenes, where any other African-American actress of the period (say Louise Beavers) playing a maid would not have gotten camera time - I wonder if this was because Hattie was photogenic and the movie crews were noticing this, or because David Selznick may have noticed her and requested some additional footage for her. She handles the role with customary humor and spice.) Crawford finds (although she has had hints) that Douglas' older sister (Fay Bainter) is cold and hostile. More about this later. Young's wife (Margaret Sullivan) is very friendly and sweet. But although Crawford warms up to Sullivan, Young (who had been initially cold to the marriage) begins showing a different attitude: he is falling in love with Crawford. Bainter takes an "I told you so!" attitude to this, and Sullivan becomes increasingly miserable. Only Douglas seems oblivious - in particular because Crawford is making every effort to remain faithful.The climax concerns the dream house that Douglas and Crawford were planning to build a few miles from Bainter's home. Instead of being a solution to the twisted mess, it becomes a magnet for the coming disaster. It is only with the disaster that the relations are sorted out.Now about Bainter: This film was made within three years of the renewal (and new teeth) to the Hollywood Production Code. As such, certain things could be said and certain things couldn't. In terms of the code, the film fits properly. But with Bainter, they managed (or that fine actress did) to push the envelope a little. In a confrontation scene with Douglas, Bainter reveals something about her private feelings. She hates Crawford, and tells Douglas to get rid of her, eventually saying, "I'm your sister and I love you!" Her character is a repressed spinster type (she is the oldest of the siblings), and she has never really been close to Sullivan (although the latter grew up in the area). One gets the impression Bainter has certain incestuous feelings for Douglas and even Young (and that the former chooses to overlook these, and the latter resents them). This seems to be the first time this kind of situation arises in a film prior to Geraldine Fitzgerald's performance as George Sanders' possessive sister in THE STRANGE AFFAIR OF UNCLE HARRY, but that at time was slightly more explicit.With Frank Albertson in a supporting part as a rustic with jazz trumpet ambitions (who momentarily makes the situation for Crawford get a bit murkier).