GUILTY HANDS (1931) ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: W.S. Van Dyke
Lionel Barrymore, Kay Francis, Madge Evans,
William Bakewell, C. Aubrey Smith, Polly Moran,
Alan Mobray, Forrester Harvey, Charles Crockett
Lionel Barrymore plays an attorney who believes that in certain circumstances murder can not only be justified, but gotten away with. When his daughter announces her engagement to a womanizer twice her age, he decides to put his theory to the test. So the mystery's not much of a mystery, but the ending's playfully twisted, the morals are pre-Code, and with Woody Van Dyke at the helm and a running time of 70 minutes, the pace is brisk.
