BEFORE MORNING (1933) Leo Carrillo, Lora Baxter & Taylor Holmes | Crime, Mystery, Romance | B&W

Before Morning is a 1933 American pre-Code crime drama directed by Arthur Hoerl, and starring Leo Carrillo, Lora Baxter, and Taylor Holmes. The film was adapted for the screen by Arthur Hoerl, from the 1933 Broadway play of the same name by Edward and Edna Riley.

SYNOPSIS
A night of love, intrigue, death, and blackmail leaves stage-star Elsie Manning's fate at stake in a conflict with the unscrupulous Doctor Gruell. A rejected lover dies in Miss Manning's apartment, and Gurell implies that the death was murder and attempts to blackmail the actress. The climax brings the actress, her fiancé, and the dead man's wife face-to-face in an emotional denouement.

Actress Elsie Manning (Lora Baxter) is engaged to Horace Baker (Blaine Cordner), but has also been in a romantic relationship with James Nichols (Russell Hicks) who has named her as the beneficiary in his will. Not knowing about her engagement, Nichols asks his wife for a divorce and is refused. Nichols dies in Manning's apartment after she tells him she's engaged to Baker. When Baker arrives on the scene, he agrees to help her dispose of the body by having Nichols moved to a sanitarium. The owner, Dr. Gruelle (Leo Carrillo), tells them Nichols was murdered by poison and attempts to extort money from Manning for his statement that the death was of natural causes.

CAST & CREW
Leo Carrillo as Dr. Gruelle/Mr. Maitland
Lora Baxter as Elsie Manning
Taylor Holmes as Leo Bergman
Blaine Cordner as Horace Baker
Louise Prussing as Mrs. Nichols
Russell Hicks as James Nichols
Louis Jean Heydt as Neil Kennedy
Jules Epailly as Ben Ayoub
Constance Bertrand as Diane
Terry Carroll as Doris

Directed by Arthur Hoerl
Written by Arthur Hoerl (adaptation)
Based on Before Morning by Edward and Edna Riley
Produced by Robert Mintz
Cinematography Frank Zucker, Walter Strenge
Edited by Joseph Silverstein
Production companies Stage and Screen Productions, Inc.
Distributed by State Rights
Release date November 18, 1933
Running time 56 minutes
Country United States
Language English

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