The Shining Hour Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

The Shining Hour Blu-ray Movie Review

Not to be confused with "The Jack Torrance Variety Show."

Reviewed by Randy Miller III July 2, 2024

A romantic melodrama with a fine cast and crew that mostly fails to capitalize on its strengths, Frank Borzage's The Shining Hour was reportedly originally developed after star Joan Crawford saw the original 1933 stage play by Keith Winter; she asked MGM studio head Louis B Mayer to adapt it to film (with her starring, of course), and even suggested then up-and-coming starlet Margaret Sullavan for the lead supporting role. That kind of feverish commitment might suggest truly special source material, but the end result spins its wheels so much that its 76 minute running time doesn't feel all that breezy. Let's call this one The Occasionally Shining Hour and Sixteen Minutes instead.

The Shining Hour starts off decently enough, with former nightclub dancer Olivia Riley (Crawford) giving up her trade for a more respectable life and engagement to wealthy farmer Henry Linden (Melvyn Douglas)... even though she's not terribly in love with the guy. But with his well-to- do family comes an awful lot of baggage: Henry's nosy sister Hannah (Fay Bainter) persuades Henry's younger brother David (Robert Young) to break up their impending marriage, which ends up working out a little different when he's immediately attracted to his future sister-in-law. The feeling is mutual, but Olivia doesn't express her feelings and the marriage to Henry continues as planned, including a move to the family farm in Wisconsin. Meanwhile, David's wife Judy (Sullavan) is in a somewhat similar situation: both are in unrequited relationships, but for different reasons. Yet Hannah is still a major catalyst... so her continued unacceptance of Olivia, combined with David's growing feelings for her, soon pish the Linden family to its breaking point.

A lot happens in The Shining Hour's 76 minutes... but for several reasons, even its soapiest sharp left turns don't generate much actual excitement. The performances are, for the most part, fine. The cinematography? Good. The direction? Decent enough. But the actual writing is fairly uneven, with intermittently whip-smart dialogue mostly outrunning a handful of poorly-placed plot developments that simply don't mesh well with The Shining Hour's largely unlikeable characters. This is simply a story that's hard to get swept up in, with occasional highlights -- the opening 15-20 minutes, most of the scenes with Margaret Sullavan, every scene with the terrific Hattie McDaniel (who plays the family's house servant Belvedere, naturally) -- sporadically dragged down by a few convoluted twists and varying levels of romantic chemistry between its main players. It all adds up to a film that's at least worth a once-over for die-hard fans of its cast, but I wouldn't consider The Shining Hour to be a career highlight for anyone involved.

More than anything, The Shining Hour may have been a victim of bad timing. Had this film been released before the Hays Code took effect some five years earlier, it may have been able to capitalize on some of the melodrama in meatier ways; as is, most of the material just feels like a surface-level soap opera. Yet the end result may still appeal to fans of MGM's output from this era... and if nothing else, Warner Archive's Blu-ray presentation supperts it well enough with a pretty decent A/V restoration and several vintage bonus features as pre-show entertainment.

The Shining Hour Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

As with many movies from this era where the original camera negative is either lost to time or not entirely available, Warner Archive's 1080p transfer of The Shining Hour is advertised as being sourced from a recent 4K scan of the best-available preservation elements. And while it's pretty clear that the overall quality level of this transfer fluctuates quite a bit from scene to scene, it's largely held together well and enjoys most of the visual highlights we've come to expect from the boutique label. Image detail can't help but run a little soft and black levels don't dig especially deep, although subtle gradations and shadow detail don't seem to be compromised in any obvious way. Film grain is ever-present but actually a bit chunky and uneven at times, with sporadic levels of macro blocking that typically aren't present on dual-layered discs of 1.37:1 black-and-white material. I'm not suggesting that there's major room for improvement, as the majority of scenes in The Shining Hour look quite good in-motion. But it doesn't look quite as polished and precise as WAC's best discs, even it a few issues may have been more noticeable due to the source material used.

The Shining Hour Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio is similarly a decent effort under the circumstances, with well-rendered dialogue that only suffers from intermittent and low levels of hiss and crackle; more often than not, small remnants can be heard just after certain lines are spoken. It's almost par for the course where films from this particular era are concerned and thus mostly forgivable, and in any case The Shining Hour's dynamic range seems to have been preserved fairly well in the process. Not having the boutique label's own 2009 DVD on-hand for a direct comparison, I can only assume that this restoration and lossless upgrade decently outperforms its standard definition counterpart.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are offered during the main feature only, not the extras listed below.

The Shining Hour Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with vintage poster-themed cover artwork and no inserts of any kind. The assorted bonus features are mostly lightweight but add a bit of pre-show entertainment value.

• MGM Radio Program (23:00) - This excerpt from the 11/17/38 episode of MGM's long-running radio show Good News was made to promote The Shining Hour and features several audio clips from the finished film.

• Classic Cartoons - Three decently-restored Merrie Melodies cartoons from the WB vault.

• Love and Curses (8:27) - This 1938 short follows old couple Harold and Emily as they peruse a family album of from the 90s (the 1890s, that is), and it's a bit more action-packed than you'd expect.
• Porky's Five and Dime (7:05) - Another oddball, this 1938 Porky outing finds him trying to open a store on the remote island of Boola Boola but he opts for a Hollywood-style nightclub instead.
• The Sneezing Weasel (6:43) - A standout 1938 short directed by Tex Avery, this one features a group of young chicks valiantly defending themselves from a weasel by any means necessary.

• Theatrical Trailer (2:58) - This dramatic vintage promotional piece can also be seen here.

The Shining Hour Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Frank Borzage's The Shining Hour has a solid cast, good performances, and twists and turns for days, yet ultimately doesn't generate much excitement due to its uneven screenplay. Even so, it's worth a look for interested parties and worth revisiting for die-hard fans, which is advice that also applies to Warner Archive's new Blu-ray: despite a few A/V hiccups and my obvious quibbles with the actual film, this is a decently well-rounded disc that supports the main feature well enough. It's certainly recommended to the right crowd, even if that doesn't include me.