Steinesongo Too many fans seem to be blown away

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

dbdumonteil Paul Douglas and Richard Basehart carry the movie on their shoulders ;the movie has got the three unities: time,place and(almost) action :I write "almost" because two minor subplots(Grace Kelly's appointment and the Jeffrey Hunters/Debra Paget romance)are mostly filler.All that remains is excellent:the film continues the tradition of the Freudian movie which thrived in the precedent decade with Hitchcock,Lang ,Tourneur and Siodmak and the actors direction is first class ;Douglas and Basehart hold the audience breathless and there's no lull:considering the limitations there are working under in space and in time,it's a true tour De force ;the interventions are brilliant:Mrs Moorehead is an actress who makes all her scenes count;even the sometimes bland Bel Geddes can play her game well.Douglas ,when he suggest the suicidal young man go fishing with him,becomes a new father for him,just like Cooper and Tone were new fathers for Cromwell in "lives of a Bengal Lancer";in "souls at sea" there is another father/son relationship.I have always loved Henry Hathaway's movies,from "Peter Ibbetson" TO "kiss of death" , from" the trail of the lonesome pine" to " true grit" (1969)and from "Niagara" to "legend of the lost" ."14 hours" is to be ranked among his best.

HAL9000-4 Alternately cynical and ebullient, this film evokes the best and worst of the reality TV generation with it's breathless minute-by-minute commentary from news reporters who seem as frantic as it's desperate protagonist.A horribly mis-cast Richard Basehart as "the boy" is difficult to watch. Basehart, best known to me as the craggy captain of the Seaview in "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea", was actually 37 years old at the time this was made and doesn't fit the role of anxious recent college grad. His co-star, 8 years younger, seems closer to the mark. Basehart can deliver the goods on the ledge though, he just seems a bit long in the tooth for confused youngster.The movie excels in its tense dialog between "the traffic cop" and "the boy" but it falls flat in every other scene. The cops are all from Central Casting and you're basic stereotypes from every 1940s movie you've ever seen.A couple of other side-stories are grafted on as bookends, basically spectators who are drawn together by the event. However, the action is telegraphed so far in advance only a four-year old would not know the outcome after the first 3 or 4 lines of dialog. Grace Kelley turns in a nice performance. We rented the movie to see her "Debut", which turns out to be all of about 5 minutes of screen time.It does presage a real-time action drama like "24". It might have even worked better that way. We are only aware of the gaps in the 14 hour stretch by things like a pile of cigarette butts or more obviously when night falls.Many people who are simply lazy cast this film into the "Noir" bucket, certainly the cynicism of some of the bystanders fits the mold, but the overall optimism by everyone involved and the lack of a "femme fatale" make this not noir material except by date. Shame on Fox for their laziness in lumping it in there.

Turfseer The DVD contains some interesting commentary by film noir expert Foster Hirsch. His basic thesis is that what 14 Hours is really about is a crisis over masculinity. Hirsch argues that the subtext of the film is that the Richard Basehart character ("Robert Cosick") is gay but in 1951, Hollywood was not permitted to deal with such gay themes explicitly. Hirsch makes some good points particularly in his description of Charlie Dunnigan, the down-to-earth cop (convincingly played by Paul Douglas) who is set up as a well-adjusted family man in contrast to the tormented Cosick.14 Hours works on two levels. The primary level is the attempt by Dunnigan to get Cosick off the ledge and prevent him from killing himself. It's interesting that it's immediately apparent that Dunnigan has established a rapport with Cosick but the higher-ups (represented by the Police Captain played by Howard DaSilva) sends Dunnigan back to the street. Only once the two 'professionals' (the psychologists) are brought to the scene and realize that Cosick will only speak to Dunnigan that the brass have to eat crow and bring their 'inferior' back up to negotiate.If the whole movie was just Dunnigan trying to sway Cosick, things would get pretty boring after awhile. But Screenwriter John Paxton mixes things up nicely by bringing in the three family members who try and coax the errant son/husband back to reality. Agnes Moorehead probably has the most interesting part in the movie as Cosick's semi-demented mother who just can't cut the strings. Then there's the passive alcoholic father played by Robert Keith (the real life father of well known actor, Brian Keith) who comes off as much more genuine than the spotlight-grabbing mother. Barbara Bel Geddes has the thankless role of being the good 'wife' who deep down knows she'll never have a sexual relationship with her husband ever again. There are other characters that add to the film's verisimilitude high above street level: the slew of cops who are continually trying to physically remove Cosick from his perch as well as the obsessed preacher, the 'man of God' who sabotages the rescue plan almost culminating in disaster!The second level takes place 'below' the main action. On the street level, we're introduced to a group of 'everyman' characters. One of them is Mrs. Fuller (in Grace Kelly's first screen role). She's on her way up to her attorney to finalize divorce proceedings. Then there's the down-to-earth 'Ruth' (played by Debra Paget) who meets Danny (played by Jeffrey Hunter of 'King of Kings fame') in the gathering crowd who are staring up at the great passion play above. There's also a group of taxicab drivers (one of them is Ossie Davis in his first screen role) who represent the various ethnic types found in NYC. They cynically place bets on the exact time they expect Cosick to jump. Finally, there's the media—the reporters, both print and TV journalists who are covering the media event. Suffice it to say, the 'media' does not come off very well in this film.14 Hours has a gripping story that moves along at a brisk pace. You'll find out from the DVD commentary that most if was filmed on a Hollywood sound stage but through expert editing, the NY scenes were inserted to make it look like the entire film was filmed in New York City. As I mentioned before, I agree with Foster Hirsch's central thesis that this is a film about a guy who doesn't trust his masculinity. Some of Hirsch's theories go a little too far, especially when he suggests that the Woolworth Building in the background is a phallic symbol. Furthermore I disagree with his view that the film takes a dim view of the psychologist who provides the 'psychological' explanation of Cosick's malady. Quite the contrary, psychoanalysis was all the rage at that time, especially in the movies, so when the explanation is offered that Cosick is suffering from an "Oedipal Complex', and all his family members are depicted as contributing to Cosick's neurosis, it appears that the filmmakers seem to embrace that line of reasoning.14 Hours loses a bit of its luster with it advocacy of what it believes is 'normal'. While Cosick is saved, it's quite obvious that he'll always be 'damaged goods'. But most of the other characters get to live 'happily ever after'. The 'normal' couple go off in the sunset hand in hand, presumably to begin a 'normal' (1951 style) sexual relationship. Grace Kelly realizes that divorce isn't the answer and even the taxi drivers walk away from the most cynical of their lot. Dunnigan meets up with his son and we get a peek of his doting wife waiting outside the revolving doors at the front of the hotel.14 Hours will never win awards for tolerance of 'alternative lifestyles'. But as a taut, gripping, little thriller, it can be surely termed an 'oldie but goodie'.

wwstring_2006 I believe the revolving door in the hotel lobby was actually on the Hollywood set because I have never seen such a door that rotated both directions. You can see the handles on the door which would be for CCW rotation (normal) which it does early in the film. Towards the end, Dunnigan's son comes thru the door and he and his father go back out with it rotating CW. Real doors had a mechanism to prevent this because of the potential danger to users.WW II 60 inch searchlights did not have an exposed knife switch that turned them on. They had an enclosed switch due to the danger of exposed electrical contacts. The knife switch was something Hollywood stuck of the outside of the real switch in order to make the plot work. The light was probably turned on at another switch off camera. If you look carefully when the boy jumps and hits the switch, you can see a couple of black cables that were added and just tied on to the real ones (which are silver colored).