The Desperate Hours (1955)

The Desperate Hours
Directed by William Wyler
Written by Joseph Hayes from his novel and play
1955/USA
Paramount Pictures
First viewing/Warner Bros. Home Video DVD

[box] Glenn Griffin: I got my guts full of you shiny-shoed wise guys with handkerchiefs in their pockets![/box]

Bogie comes full circle from a career-making performance as hostage-taker Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forest (1936)  to a similar role in The Desperate Hours, one of his final films.

Banker Dan C. Hillyard (Fredric March) lives an idyllic upper-middle class life with his Norman Rockwell perfect wife Ellie (Martha Scott) and two children, twenty-something Cindy and 10-year-old Ralphie.  Drawn by the bicycle lying on the lawn, prison-escapees Glenn Griffin (Bogart), his brother Hal and dim-witted tough guy Kobish terrorize the family into giving them haven until Griffin’s girlfriend can deliver the cash necessary to get the trio to Mexico.

Hours stretch into days when the delivery is delayed and fraying nerves threaten to convert the uneasy truce between Griffin and the family into a bloodbath. The normally forceful Hillyard must use every bit of restraint at his command to keep the situation under control. With Gig Young as Cindy’s boyfriend and Arthur Kennedy as the town Deputy Sheriff.

It was a joy to see two of our greatest cinema actors, March and Bogart,  go at it in this gripping story.  Both were superlative.  Bogie had reached the point in his life where there was a deep and moving sadness in his eyes that belied the tough guy surface.  Wyler keeps the suspense high and the action moving in what could be a claustrophobic setting. There are few traces left of the story’s stage play origins.  Recommended.

Trailer