Guilty Hands
| Guilty Hands | |
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Swedish theatrical poster
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| Directed by |
W. S. Van Dyke Lionel Barrymore (uncredited) |
| Produced by | Hunt Stromberg (uncredited) |
| Written by |
Bayard Veiller (story and screenplay) |
| Starring | Lionel Barrymore Kay Francis Madge Evans |
| Cinematography | Merritt B. Gerstad |
| Edited by | Anne Bauchens |
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Production
company |
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| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
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Release date
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Running time
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68-69 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Guilty Hands is a 1931 American Pre-Code crime film starring Lionel Barrymore, Kay Francis and Madge Evans and directed by W. S. Van Dyke, with uncredited assistance from Barrymore. The story concerns an attorney who murders a man who wants to marry his daughter.
On a train trip, lawyer Richard Grant (Lionel Barrymore) tells fellow passengers that, based on his long experience both prosecuting and defending murder cases, murder is sometimes justified and a clever man should be able to commit it undetected. He is traveling to the isolated estate of his wealthy client and friend, Gordon Rich (Alan Mowbray); his young adult daughter Barbara (Madge Evans) surprises him at the train station, and tells him that she has already been there a week.
Grant's view is soon put to the test. Rich asks him to rewrite his will, including bequests to all his former mistresses (except one who is dead already; she was just 16, and Grant believes it was suicide). When Rich explains that he wants a new will because he intends to marry Barbara, Grant is appalled. He repeats what he said on the train. Rich deserves to be murdered, and if that is what it takes to stop the marriage, Grant will do it and get away with it. Rich retorts that if necessary he will retaliate from beyond the grave. Grant replies that he will meet him in hell.
Barbara had not yet told her father because Rich asked her not to. He now pleads with her, pointing out the great age difference and Rich's indecent character. He says her wedding night with Rich will be a more horrible, shameful, long-lasting memory than her innocent mind can imagine, instead of a "thing of beauty" as it should be. But she loves Rich and is adamant. Nor has Tommy Osgood (William Bakewell), a young man Barbara had been seeing, been able to change her mind.
At a dinner party that night, Rich announces the wedding and says it will take place in the morning. Grant's congratulatory remarks include a veiled threat about "all the hours of your life". Rich's longtime girlfriend, Marjorie West (Kay Francis), is dismayed, but after the party he assures her that, as usual, he will return to her once he exhausts his obsession with Barbara. He is only marrying Barbara because she would not go to bed with him otherwise.
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Wikipedia