The Desperate Hours 1955 123movies

Watch: The Desperate Hours 1955 123movies, Full Movie Online – After escaping from prison, Glenn Griffin, his brother Hal and a third inmate Sam Kobish randomly select a house in a well-to-do suburb of Indianapolis in which to hide out. The home belongs to the Hilliard family, Dan and Ellie who live there with their 19-year old daughter Cindy and their young son Ralph. They plan on staying only until midnight as Griffin is awaiting his girlfriend who will meet them with some money he had stashed away. When she doesn’t arrive, their stay stretches out to several days. Dan Hilliard plays their game knowing that if he makes any attempt to contact the police, his family could be caught in the crossfire..
Plot: Escaped convicts terrorize a suburban family they’re holding hostage.
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Ratings:

	7.5/10 Votes: 10,133
	88% | RottenTomatoes
	N/A | MetaCritic
	N/A Votes: 121 Popularity: 9.399 | TMDB

Reviews:

Too Many Plot Holes
Daniel and Ellie Hilliard and their two children, teenage Cindy and nine-year-old Ralph, seem like the perfect all-American family, living the American Dream in an upmarket middle-class suburb of Indianapolis. It is, of course, a standard cinematic cliché that bourgeois comfort goes before a fall, and so it proves here. The Hilliards are subjected to a home invasion by three escaped convicts, brothers Glenn and Hal Griffin and the slow-witted and thuggish Simon Kobish, and are held hostage. They never inform the police, although they have opportunities to do so, because they are terrified of what the convicts might do to the other family members. (With justification- the crooks show how ruthless they can be when they murder the garbage collector, who they suspect has stumbled om the truth). The police, however, eventually discover where the convicts are hiding.

“Directed by William Wyler” and “starring Humphrey Bogart” are normally two good reasons for me to watch any movie. Bogart, appearing in his penultimate film before his tragically early death- his last was to be “The Harder They Fall”- is certainly good. He plays Glenn Griffin, the oldest of the three convicts, and the one who acts as their leader. He is an intelligent man and there is something about Bogart’s performance that suggests that under different circumstances he could have made more of his life, but under the circumstances in which he actually finds himself he is trapped by self-pity and a refusal to take responsibility for his actions. He displays a particular animosity towards the blameless Daniel Hilliard whom he sees as a typical representative of the middle classes he despises, but fails to see that the true reason for his predicament is his own criminality rather than his working-class background.

The role of Glenn- originally a much younger man- had been created by Paul Newman in the Broadway stage play on which the film was based, but the producers wanted a big Hollywood star in the role, and in 1955 Newman did not count as such. He had at this date only made one feature film, “The Silver Chalice”, and that was a notorious flop.

“The Desperate Hours”, however, is not as good as I had hoped it would be. It is reasonably well directed and acted; besides Bogart, Fredric March is also good as the distressed paterfamilias Daniel. The problem lies with the script and the story. There are too many plot-holes or unexplained developments. In fact, it is never really explained why the convicts break into the Hilliards’ home in the first place. We are informed that they are waiting for Griffin’s girlfriend to send money to them, but we are not informed why they needed to break into a house for this purpose or what they intend to do once they have got the money. Could they not have arranged a rendezvous in some place where they would be at less risk of drawing attention to themselves, and if they needed a building to shelter in, would not an unoccupied one have been safer? And why did the Griffin brothers choose someone as stupid and unpredictably violent as Kobish as their accomplice?

Another plot hole is that the three convicts, on number of occasions, allow one or more of their hostages to leave the building- Daniel so that he can go to work, Cindy so that she can keep a date with her boyfriend, and so on. Admittedly, they always make sure that they have one family member as a hostage, but could they really afford to take the chance that the person allowed to leave might take the opportunity to alert the police?

And so on. The film is supposed to be a thriller, but I watch thrillers to be thrilled, not to be distracted by unnecessary weaknesses in the plot. 6/10, which would have been lower without Bogart’s contribution.

“Clickety – Clickety – Clickety – Click”
The original THE DESPERATE HOURS is one of the best true suspense films that were ever made. The incident happened in upstate New York in 1953, when three escaped convicts invaded a private home, and then terrorized the family until they were captured and killed by the police. In fact, the story became a successful Broadway play that this film is based on (the family in the original incident brought an unsuccessful lawsuit against the dramatist for invasion of privacy).

Humphrey Bogart, his brother Dewey Martin, and that marvelous villain Robert Middleton play the three convicts, who having escaped prison take the Hilliard prisoners. Bogart is awaiting his girlfriend who is supposed to bring money and a car for their total getaway. In the meantime Bogart is doing his best to make the Hilliards as unhappy as possible. Not too difficult, as Martha Scott, Mary Murphy, and Richard Eyer are facing three thugs who are armed. And Fredric March is the family head, frightened at the most hideous prospect possible (his family being wiped out), but struggling to maintain his courage but also his head – he hates Bogart but must not do anything that will antagonize him. Bogart fully returns the dislike. A poor guy all his life, he turned to crime to make a living. When the younger and softer Martin tries to speak out for March/Hilliard, Bogart snarls out, “And what did the Hilliards ever do for you?” In truth not much, which is what this particular Hilliard is paying for now. After awhile, watching March’s careful thinking of what to do, Bogart starts taunting him as though he’s a machine he sees through – saying the line in the “Subject line” above.

There are several problems that gradually increase the tensions: 1) Richard Eyer is brave as a little kid who does not understand that guns can kill. He thinks his father is the bravest man in the world, and cannot understand why he doesn’t take on and destroy the bad guys.

2) The family has to maintain the aura of normality – Bogart and Murphy have to go out to their jobs and act without stirring any notice. Hard in normal situations, it is driving Murphy to insanity because she can’t talk to her boyfriend, Gig Young. And Young is beginning to wonder why.

3) If the surface is to look normal, you have to keep anything unusual hidden. The original getaway car is in the Hilliard garage (now closed). But the local garbage man (Walter Baldwin) finds it accidentally – leading to an ugly tragedy.

4) Bogart and Martin are brothers, but Martin is attracted to a normal life, not one of violence. He may eventually want not to stick to Bogart.

5) Middleton came along, but he really is not trusted by Bogart – and he has a weapon of his own.

6) Bogart’s plans include killing the officer who sent him to prison, Arthur Kennedy. Kennedy and the state police are coordinating the entire search, and keeping a tight lid on top of the escaped prisoners (making their temporary safety more claustrophobic).

All of these elements build the pressure up and up and up until the last twenty minutes. The results are quite explosive and impressive, and memorable. This was Bogart’s last film as a bad guy, and he made the most of it. It was also his only film with Fredric March, and the tension in their scenes together grows until it shatters at the conclusion. Martha Scott, Gig Young (whose character’s independent actions throws the convicts’ plans out of wack), Middleton (quite chilling), and Kennedy give first rate performances. Martin’s performance is also good, and ultimately tragic. No lover of suspense films will be disappointed by THE DESPERATE HOURS.

Other Information:

Original Language en
Runtime 1 hr 52 min (112 min)
Budget 2300000
Revenue 2500000
Status Released
Rated Approved
Genre Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Director William Wyler
Writer Joseph Hayes, Jay Dratler
Actors Humphrey Bogart, Fredric March, Arthur Kennedy
Country United States
Awards 2 wins & 1 nomination
Production Company N/A
Website N/A

Technical Information:

Sound Mix Mono (Western Electric Recording)
Aspect Ratio 1.37 : 1 (original ratio), 2.00 : 1 (intended ratio)
Camera N/A
Laboratory N/A
Film Length (12 reels)
Negative Format 35 mm (horizontal)
Cinematographic Process VistaVision: Motion Picture High-Fidelity
Printed Film Format 35 mm