Held For Murder (aka Her Mad Night) (DVD)

Incredible twists of fate have led Joan Manners to an appointment with the electric chair. Her problems begin with a whirlwind courtship with wealthy lawyer Steve Kennedy. Steve tells her about his adopted daughter, Connie, a young woman he has raised since she was a child. Joan reels in shock when she sees the girl's baby picture and recognizes the infant as her own, a product of a past she's trying to conceal. Steve's life-long best friend, womanizer Schuyler Durkin, was once Joan's lover and is currently wooing the coquettish Connie on the sly. This tangled web of relationships leads to Connie accidentally shooting Durkin when he tries to rape her. To protect her daughter, Joan takes the rap for Durkin's death. Even with Steve as defense counsel, Joan's courtroom refusal to reveal the truth about the killing dooms her to execution.

Her Mad Night (aka Held for Murder) is a "moral melodrama" from the first decade of talkies. Irene Rich, often paired with Will Rogers in silent and sound movies, also had success starring in her own radio show, "Dear John," which premiered the year after this film was released and ran more than ten years. Director E. Mason Hopper retired from directing three years after helming this picture, but resurfaced in 1950 with a bit part in one of Hollywood's greatest masterpieces, Sunset Boulevard.

• drama