It is based on Bernard Merivale's 1935 play The Unguarded Hour, an adaptation of an earlier Hungarian work by Ladislas Fodor.

[1][2] Some changes were made from the play in order to heighten the drama, including having the heroine as the elusive witness in connection with the trial.

[3] The film's set designs were overseen by Cedric Gibbons, assisted by Edwin B. Willis and Joseph Wright.

Although these pre-date their marriage, Lady Helen worries that scandal would ruin her husband's career and reluctantly agrees to pay the blackmail demand of £2,000.

Helen does what she can to persuade her husband that Metford is innocent and that people often make poor witnesses when they are telling the truth, but he is unmoved.