The Final Hour

“A lot of guys belong to the used to be club.” Engulfed in career failure, alcoholism, and divorce, attorney John Vickery (Ralph Bellamy) embodies that kind of desperate film noir protagonist vulnerable to criminal opportunities, and he seizes on them in D. Ross Lederman’s The Final Hour. Released in 1936, Lederman’s film indulges in darkness — aesthetically and spiritually — more than most at a time when the film noir style was just a glint in Hollywood’s eye. After passing out in a club owned by gangster Red McLarnen (John Gallaudet), Vickery ends up providing legal counsel to McLarnen and his partners while recovering in the apartment of the enamored Flo Russell (Marguerite Churchill), McLarnen’s girlfriend who works at the club but has been in love with Vickery since an encounter many months earlier. Featuring countless shots of glorious B&W expressionism, what’s most striking is the film’s pacing, which commands attention for a single hour while flying through a story arc comprising not only Vickery’s psychological recovery but false murder accusations, fortune tellers, frame-ups, machine gun battles, and death by skateboard.