14 Hours (1951)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Preparing to jump from the ledge of a skyscraper, Robert Cosick (Richard Basehart), a depressed young man, is spotted by police officer Charlie Dunnigan (Paul Douglas), who attempts to talk him down. Bringing in his dysfunctional parents and girlfriend Virginia (Barbara Bel Geddes) only seems to exacerbate the situation. Meanwhile, the number of onlookers increases as the spectacle unfolds, profoundly affecting some in the crowd.
- Actors:
- Paul Douglas, Richard Basehart, Barbara Bel Geddes, Debra Paget, Agnes Moorehead, Robert Keith, Howard Da Silva, Jeffrey Hunter, Martin Gabel, Grace Kelly, Frank Faylen, Jeff Corey, James Millican, Donald Randolph
- Directors:
- Henry Hathaway
- Producers:
- Sol C. Siegel
- Writers:
- John Paxton, Joel Sayre
- Others:
- Lyle Wheeler, Leland Fuller, Thomas Little, Fred J. Rode
- Aka:
- Fourteen Hours
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama, Thrillers
- Collections:
- Top 10 Guest Houses On Film, Top Films
More like 14 Hours
Reviews (1) of 14 Hours
Standing Room Only - 14 Hours review by griggs
A man on a ledge, a city below holding its breath. Henry Hathaway strips away backstory and plays it almost in real time — bold in execution, though it leaves Richard Basehart’s would-be jumper frustratingly opaque, his inner life eventually dumped into a clunky psychiatric monologue. Fox sold it as noir. It isn’t, quite. Call it a procedural thriller where the crowd becomes the story.
14 Hours is quietly brilliant in its margins. A divorcing couple lose focus in the spectacle — one half played by a young Grace Kelly in her feature debut. Debra Paget and Jeffrey Hunter — barely started out — find each other in the crush below. Two magnificently mordant old ladies appear, steal their moment, and vanish. These bystanders carry more human weight than the man on the ledge ever manages.
Paul Douglas anchors it as the traffic cop threading between chaos and compassion, with Agnes Moorehead, Barbara Bel Geddes and Robert Keith all making their moments count. Solid work. Flawed at its centre, quietly alive at its edges.