Before Morning (1933).avi

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A night of love, intrigue, death and blackmail leaves stage-star Elise 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.



Brief Synopsis (from TCM.com)

Elsie Manning, an actress, tells her friend, theatrical producer Neil Kennedy, that she is leaving the stage to marry Horace Barker. Later that evening, her lover, James Nichols, returns to town from a business trip, and Elsie ends her relationship with him. They part amicably, but as Jim gets up to leave, he feels faint. He tells Elsie that his wife refused to grant him a divorce. While he takes a capsule for his dizziness, Elsie is called to the phone to speak to her young daughter Norma, who is in the hospital. When she returns, Jim is dead. Elsie phones her friend, Leo Bergman, who comes to her aid with Dr. Gruelle, the owner of a sanitarium. In order to avoid a scandal, Gruelle agrees to pretend that Jim died at the sanitarium, rather than in Elsie's apartment. As they are making the arrangements, Horace returns to Elsie's apartment, and he is outraged when he hears about her relationship with Jim. He relents, however, and insists that no matter what, he still wants to marry her. Later, Gruelle tells Elsie that Jim was poisoned and did not die of a heart attack. Noting that she was named in his will, he asks for part of the $200,000 Jim left her in order to keep quiet. Elsie denies killing Jim and suggests that he might have been poisoned when he took his medicine. Gruelle then summons Jim's wife. While Elsie waits in another room, Gruelle tells Mrs. Nichols that her husband is dead and makes her the same proposal he made Elsie. Mrs. Nichols agrees to the plan, but Elsie bursts into the room and refuses to cover up the murder. She intends to use Jim's medicine as proof of Mrs. Nichols' crime, but she can't find the bottle where Jim left it. After realizing that Mrs. Nichols has been alone in the bedroom, Elsie discovers the bottle in her purse. Mrs. Nichols then offers Gruelle more money to cover up the murder. Just then Horace, Leo and Neil arrive and reveal Gruelle to be Mr. Maitland, a police inspector. When she hears the news, Mrs. Nichols tries to jump off the balcony. Gruelle arrests Mrs. Nichols, and Horace and Elsie kiss to seal their engagement.