The Desperate Hours
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Movie Reviews of The Desperate Hours
Movie Review: Simply Amazing
Summary: 5 Stars
With all the thrillers, i've watched till date, The Desperate Hour is truely the king of them all. Humprey Bogart rocks in this movie and while March plans to protect his family with the unloaded gun, the tension grips high times. This is a classic that need to be in every movie collectors shelves.Movie Review: Can Humphrey Bogart get any better?!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have to say, I'm not usually a fan of old films, but my friend introduced me to this one and I am hooked! This film is about 3 escaped convicts and the exciting sequence of events that take place while hiding in a family's house. Mr. Bogart is legendary and now I can see why!Movie Review: Amazing movie that makes you think
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie was amazing and makes you think what would you do if cold blooded killers took over your house and used your family as leverage. Bogart was excellent and the cast was to.Movie Review: Tense
Summary: 5 Stars
A tense film that follows a home invasion and hostage situation. It might be a little dated for some younger watchers, still it has fine performances from Bogart and Fredric March.Movie Review: Could have been something more
Summary: 4 Stars
In 1936 a then lesser known actor named Humphrey Bogart appeared as a gangster for the first time in the classic film The Petrified Forest which included screen legends Bette Davis and Leslie Howard. The plot was simple, a notorious gangster. Duke Mantee (Bogart), holds people hostage in a service station in the middle of nowhere awaiting his girlfriend. What made The Petrified Forest so great is it's handling of multiple ideas; Patriotism, freedom, art, philosophy, and the pursuit of your dreams no matter what they are. Most films can't handle more one or two ideas without falling apart and Forest managed to handle more than that and succeeds; Truly a timeless film.
Fast forward to 1955 and Bogey, now a screen legend, stars in his penultimate film, The Desperate Hours. Basically, a rip-off of The Petrified Forest with some minor differences. Instead of an assembly of interesting characters being held hostage, or ones with backgrounds contributing to a important themes, we get a standard suburban family. This was a strictly A-to-B plot, gangsters hold the family hostage, they sweat it out with some events occurring and all the bad guys are gunned down at the end. Fredrick March plays the father of the family being held hostage and though he gives a good preformance, you never feel much for him. I will admit there is some suspense and actually enough to sustain the film but it's ultimately formulaic; A shame since more could have been explored with this material. A couple of times Bogart exposes why he hates March so much: He hates the upper class, the ones on the parole board that said he can't live with "decent folk". If only the writers took advantage of this friction. Also another good idea that was wasted was Bogart's relationship towards his younger brother who looked up to him. I never read the play or book this film was based on but chances are it could have more psychological depth then the film. The trend in Hollywood by the 1950's was to make gangsters more one-dimensional then they used to be portrayed in the 1930's. Both Eddie G. Robinson and Jimmy Cagney were playing gangsters at the time who totally lacked humanity.
Overall, I'd say Desperate Hours, despite it's formulaic nature, holds up today. If you want fun distraction, pick it up.