From the 1950s: The Desperate Hours

1955 Drama
From Paramount Pictures
Directed by William Wyler

Starring
Humphrey Bogart
Fredric March
Arthur Kennedy
Martha Scott
Dewey Martin
Gig Young
Mary Murphy
Richard Eyer
Robert Middleton
Whit Bissell
Bert Freed
Ray Collins
Ray Teal

There is no such thing as a bad William Wyler movie, is there?  Some, however, may strike a chord a bit louder than some others and this is one of those.  But from the mid-30s on, this man had a most impressive record.

The premise is simple enough.  Three escaped convicts invade a family's home and keep them captive while awaiting a package to arrive with some dough.  

Two of the convicts (Bogart and Martin) are brothers and the third (Middleton), is a big ape with such a loose screw that he continually threatens the mission.  On the other hand there is the family headed by March and Scott with their daughter (Murphy) and son (Eyer).  While the family is all rightly scared, March plays a cat and mouse game with his captors, feigning cowardice while in actuality he spends every moment planning an escape.

Ultimately the police (Kennedy, Collins, Freed, Teal) and the FBI (Bissell) all get involved with a lot of jockeying over who's jurisdiction it is and who's in charge. 

While it is tense during its hour and 52-minute playing time, it is the last half hour that makes it all a damned good time.  

This would be one of those films, old or not, where it would just be so wrong to tell you all about it.  The fun comes from seeing how it works out and if you don't know this story, maybe you could give it a look-see.  If you've seen it before, here's another chance to see it again.  

It is a wonderful cast and although every single one of them turns in a good or great performance, as I see it, five seem miscast. 
Several of them, as I see it, were too old for their roles... Bogart, for one.  I don't have as much of an age issue with him as some others and maybe it's not as much old (can't a prisoner be older?) as much as he looked ill.  In this, his penultimate film, Bogie already showed signs of the illness (cancer) that would kill him at the start of 1957.  Of course a criminal can be ill, too, but it was just somewhat distracting.  Was Richard Widmark busy?

Bogie hadn't played a true bad guy in many years although Captain Queeg in The Caine Mutiny (1954) and Dix Steele in In a Lonely Place (1951) I wouldn't ask to babysit for me.  He was looking forward to tearing it up in an embittered con role from a good book and play.  He had also let director Wyler know he was interested.  They hadn't worked together since Dead End in 1937 and they liked and respected one another.

Funny that two years earlier Bogart starred in another film about three escaped prisoners coming into a family home but in this case, We're No Angels was a comedy and a delightful one at that.

To this day I remember reading that Bogart and Spencer Tracy were going to make this film and although Tracy was too old for the part as well, damn I would have loved to have seen these two as adversaries in the same film.  Tracy wanted to do it, too, but he and Bogie couldn't come together on billing.

Tracy's replacement, Fredric March, was also too old and I guess, while we're at it, I never took a shine to him, especially in leading roles.  Stodgy is the word for March and even in the 50s he was an anachronism.  A small criticism I had for the writing is that I wanted to feel a little more warmth for the family than I did (except for the kid) and this probably starts with March.  Mr. Warmth he was not.  Still, I can't say he didn't deliver the goods as the family man who knew the peril but decided he had to take some action.

Martha Scott, therefore, as the wife and mother, was also a little long in the tooth but my main criticism was why wasn't a more well-known actress hired for this role?  Even in the 50s, the average filmgoer didn't know who she was.

Mary Murphy, the daughter, had not only the spunk that was needed but one was never really sure what she was going to do or say, adding a little more tension.  She'd made a name for herself when she starred opposite Marlon Brando in the biker flick, The Wild One (1953).  She claimed she never wanted to be an actress... either before she became one or afterwards.  She was 24 when she made this and yes, too old for the part.

Richard Eyer, one of my favorite kid actors, was ideally cast and age appropriate.  As the scrappy kid in the family, he took no guff off his unwanted visitors, providing the story with some comedy.

Arthur Kennedy is what he always was... a great addition to any movie.  As the lead detective, he is tenacious about finding these escapees and bringing them to justice... or their end.  He plays it all, of course, with a sense of urgency that gets the viewer charged up as well.

If Murphy was a little too old for the part, so was Gig Young as her boyfriend.  It is vital for the family that the police not find out about the escapees because the safety of various members is threatened.  Young, who is kept at arm's-length by Murphy, doesn't understand why she does that and he gets snoopy.  He floats back and forth between her and her father and the police, providing a sense of anguish that is palpable.

Dewey Martin is the second escapee, Bogart's brother, and the nicest and most sane.  He, of course, develops a yen for the daughter and is also the one that threatens the success of his brother's plans.  

Big ol' Robert Middleton, always a wonderful character actor, was perfect as the dim-witted and most lethal of the trio.  He and young Eyer are both in the next film we're doing, too.  Anyone know what it is?

The movie is full of wonderful character actors, a few of whom are mentioned above... Bissell, Freed, Collins (Lt. Tragg of Perry Mason fame) and Teal.  

Wyler knew his way around tense crime dramas.  He could be a taskmaster but those actors who knew their jobs never had any trouble with him.  He found Bogie great to work with.  He said he was a actor with a limited range but within his scope, there was no one who could touch him.

The Desperate Hours was a successful novel written by Joseph Hayes.  He also wrote the play, which starred Paul Newman and Karl Malden (now we're talkin')

For your trivia files: the exterior of the home is the same one used for the Cleavers in TV's Leave It to Beaver.

The Desperate Hours was remade in 1990 with Mickey Rourke and Anthony Hopkins and it was not a success.

Here, take a peek:

Next posting:
The second of three Wyler
films in a row