by Hans J. Wollstein
review
Filmed entirely on a couple of threadbare sets, Before Morning is a distinct failure, if an interesting one. Aside from the rare appearance of Lora Baxter and the screen debut of Louis Jean Heydt, the film marked the initial production of a new Poverty Row company, the suitably named Stage and Screen Productions. Leo Carrillo, meanwhile, is his usual self as the detective-in-disguise (although his unmasking is not quite as surprising as director/screenwriter Arthur Hoerl perhaps had imagined), but the rest of the cast play their parts as if still on a Broadway stage and the sound recording is poor.
