Catorce horas

I've watched this film a couple of times on the Fox Movie Channel and I really think it's a pretty good little suspense/drama. Richard Basehart plays a man on the edge who decides to try and end it all perched on the ledge of a Manhattan hotel. The first on the scene is traffic cop Paul Douglas who does his best to try and befriend, comfort and hopefully coax the unbalanced man back inside. The performances are all pretty good though some of the dialogue rings a bit hokey at times. I believe this was also Grace Kelly's first film role. Director Henry Hathaway does a pretty good job of wringing out the drama and suspense and gives the film a nice, big city feel using some pretty impressive sets in the foreground and background. All in all, a pretty enjoyable film that I wouldn't mind picking up on DVD, though I don't believe it is currently available.

Despite the distinction of being Grace Kelly's first film, (and she is quite good here), this film holds up with the best of the genre. It's one of those films that is incidentally seen by the casual channel surfer and, given five minutes, impossible to turn away from. This film is amazingly innovative in its premise and relies on character, (New York being as important as any other), and story to set the flow and tempo. There are deliciously cunning and unique character moments throughout a film that is, at the same time, full of contrivance and stereotypical sorts. (Do we really need to see another Irish-american policeman being negligent in his duties?). Yet, somehow all the parts equal a very solid whole and a very tense, sharply focussed and surprising film.

If you see this one on late-night tv as you flick through with your remote, be sure to stop and take a look. This one is a definite "yes".

It's not about homosexuality, as film historian/commentator Foster Hirsch wants to believe. It's a noir Hamlet: "You're gonna jump, you're not gonna jump...!" "To be or not to be" is paraphrased by both Dunnigan and Dr. Strauss (Martin Gabel), but it's one of the reporters who quotes the play directly, "The lady doth protest too much." (Hirsch himself compares the cabby-scenes to a Shakespearean comic sub-plot.) Finally found John Cassavettes: he even has a small speaking part. He's the reporter "announcing" Mrs. Cosick's arrival at the hotel...on the telephone, to his paper. (The receiver obscures the lower part of his face.) Richard Basehart was in his 30's at the time. I read somewhere that Fellini told him, "If you could do '14 Hours,' you can do anything," explaining why RB was chosen to play "Il Matto" in "La Strada" ... a tight-rope walker.

I came across this film while changing channels. What stopped me was seeing such a young Richard Basehart. What kept me was the tense story. Most of it was confined to the building ledge and the room behind it. The background film was extraordinary. I think I've been able to pinpoint within 2 blocks where on Broadway this hotel was supposed to be. Another thing was the cast.

It seemed like they hadn't gone for "stars", just good actors. Ossie Davis, Jeffrey Hunter, Howard Da Silva (before the black- list), and Grace Kelly in her first film. I wish I could see it from the beginning.

Paul Douglas and Richard Basehart carry the movie on their shoulders ;the movie has got the three unities: time,place and(almost) action :I write "almost" because two minor subplots(Grace Kelly's appointment and the Jeffrey Hunters/Debra Paget romance)are mostly filler.

All that remains is excellent:the film continues the tradition of the Freudian movie which thrived in the precedent decade with Hitchcock,Lang ,Tourneur and Siodmak and the actors direction is first class ;Douglas and Basehart hold the audience breathless and there's no lull:considering the limitations there are working under in space and in time,it's a true tour De force ;the interventions are brilliant:Mrs Moorehead is an actress who makes all her scenes count;even the sometimes bland Bel Geddes can play her game well.

Douglas ,when he suggest the suicidal young man go fishing with him,becomes a new father for him,just like Cooper and Tone were new fathers for Cromwell in "lives of a Bengal Lancer";in "souls at sea" there is another father/son relationship.

I have always loved Henry Hathaway's movies,from "Peter Ibbetson" TO "kiss of death" , from" the trail of the lonesome pine" to " true grit" (1969)and from "Niagara" to "legend of the lost" ."14 hours" is to be ranked among his best.