The Desperate Hours

Starring:Humphrey Bogart, Fredric March, Arthur Kennedy, Martha Scott, Dewey Martin, Gig Young, Mary Murphy, Richard Eyer, Robert Middleton, Alan Reed, Bert Freed, Ray Collins, Whit Bissell, Ray Teal, Paul Salata, Edmund Cobb, Ric Roman, Don Haggerty, Ann Doran, Ralph Dumke
Director: William Wyler
Studio: Paramount
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Humphrey Bogart is at his villainous best in William Wyler's taut home-invasion thriller, The Desperate Hours. Sharply adapted by John Hayes from his own fact-based novel and Broadway play, this marked a slight departure for Wyler, whose celebrated versatility is on ready display as Bogart--leading a panicky trio of escaped convicts--seizes control of a suburban family in the (dis)comfort of their own home. The domestic terror (similarly dramatized in the 1954 potboiler Suddenly) escalates as cautious patriarch Frederic March waits for an opportunity to retaliate, while the police (led by Arthur Kennedy) close in for an ambush. Viewers may recognize the home's exterior from TV's Leave It to Beaver, while its interior gives Wyler a sealed chamber for nail-biting advances and setbacks--and Bogey was rarely better at portraying ruthless, unpredictable menace. Poorly remade in 1990, The Desperate Hours remains a potent precursor to the many similar films (like Panic Room) that followed its enduring example. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

Stop..You're Making Me Hungry.......2007-06-11

Hammy and cheesey. Very midcentury family values. Home invasion movies were somewhat popular then. Sort of a fantasy of average man rising to the occassion. That's not necessarily a bad thing just a sign of the times. Bogie snarls and March glares and acts indignant. Not a bad movie but only for Bogie fans.

Tension from start to finish! .......2007-04-28

What a pair: Humphrey Bogart and Fredric March face to face as mortal enemies. Good vs. evil. We know who will win but we don't know how. The excellent twists and turns keep us forever surprised. Spencer Tracy originally declined the role opposite Bogart because he refused second billing.

All acting is superb, though a bit of overkill with the 2 hysterical women captors. The child actor is a marvelous spunky character who never rose to deserved fame as did other kid actors.

As one reviewer wrote, What indeed would we do in this same situation, where Bogart & his 2 prison cronies hold a suburban family hostage. Fredric March, with his "clickety-clickety" mind, as Bogey calls it, is constantly trying to outwit the brutal escaped convicts once they escape from their jail like uncaged lions.

This is actually a great family action film where true loyal family values dominate, unlke today, and the starring family actually sits down for meals together and lovingly communicate with one another.

As a point of interest, the story is loosely based on the eponymous novel. The original story was covered in Time Magazine. The family held hostage sued Time - apparently there was never a settlement - but the lawyer representing the family was none other than Richard Nixon, an attorney in private practice between campaigns.

Terrible!.......2007-03-14

Unlike many other reviewers, I found this movie TERRIBLE! If it were newly released today, I think people would laugh at it, as I often did during its playing time.

The story is HIGHLY contrived, and, unless you leave your brains somewhere else, you can't help see the countless illogical occurrences in it. These contrivances make the story increasingly unbelievable--so much so that you can't suspend your belief that this is a movie. It's one plot hole after another--characters being forced to do this and that to obtain a particular effect. And on and on of the same foolishness.

The acting is pure ham--especially bogart, who is a highly overrated actor, who does not act. He just plays himself and presents what he believes the character should sound like. He does not, and cannot, enter deeply into any character he plays (except those who resemble his own life character). In other words, he presents a stereotype or charicature of a character, never really understanding it. His tough guy personna is the same old Humphrey but with a tough-guy tone and accent. It's laughable. Even the lowest level TV actor on the soaps today is far better.

The other actors are just as characaturish--the brave, concerned mom, the tough dad, the cutsy kid, the pretty daughter. Just a perfect household of nice goody-goody people who don't have a flaw in them, supposedly making them worthy of being rooted for. They don't feel their lines but try to act them, as if they were reading from a script. This makes them non-credible, hollow, distant. I felt no relationship with any of these so-called victims and didn't care if the cops saved them or not.

The directing was formulaic to the max, far below today's director standards. The name WYLER doesn't automatically mean good movie direction. There was nothing unique, awesome, or compelling about his style of moving from scene to scene.

DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS--IT IS HIGHLY OVERRATED. In its time it may have had some pizzaz or sparkle, but by today's standards it's an insult to anyone who uses even the least intelligence to follow the story.

The film gives us the most ruthless and disgusting gangsters the screen has yet seen..........2006-12-26

"The Desperate Hours" is a towering achievement in suspense films... It was cast to perfection, written and directed by a meticulous, serious artist...

Its basic situation - of a family trapped in their home for 36 hours by an utterly ruthless gang - was not new... What was new and immeasurably compelling was the fact that these were not simply "good guys" and "bad guys," but all were real, breathing, vulnerable human beings... They all knew how to hate and to be afraid, and to want to kill and want to love... There were no supermen either... They got hungry, and irritable, and tired, and they showed hesitation and uncertainty as well as pure courage...

It began as an ordinary day for the Hilliard family in their pleasant home in Indianapolis... Eleanor (Martha Scott) gave breakfast to her family and saw them off - husband Dan (Fredric March) to his job in a store, pretty daughter Cindy (Mary Murphy) to her office desk, and ten-year-o1d Ralphie (Richard Eyer) to school...

Turning on the radio, she paid little attention to the news item, about the escape of three desperate criminals from jail: ruthless Glenn Griffin (Humphrey Bogart), his younger brother Hal (Dewey Martin) and the brutish Sam Kobish (Robert Middleton).

These three needed a safe hideout while they awaited the arrival of some expected money and they chose the Hilliard home... They were installed and completely in command when Dan and the two youngsters came home - and there the family was trapped, under the gangsters' order to "make it normal" and with no doubt of the consequences if they did not obey...

As the major tensions mounted - the money did not arrive and the police closed in - there was a fascinating interplay of lesser conflicts:

- The father urgently trying to repress his rage to save his family - until his final gamble...

- The schoolboy unable to believe that the guns and bullets are real - and unable to understand why his adored father is apparently submitting without a fight...

- The wife fighting hysteria in an attempt to live normally in such circumstances...

-The spitfire daughter and her boyfriend (Gig Young), whose impatient courtship almost causes disaster...

- The youngest criminal coming to see in the quiet normality of the lives he has invaded a message of the waste of his own...

- The deputy sheriff (Arthur Kennedy) leading the hunt and knowing he has been marked out for murder...

- The gang leader, played by Humphrey Bogart with an intelligence to match his deadly ruthlessness, with a shrewd instinct for discovering others' weaknesses... and torn when his own younger brother quits, finding himself as much a prisoner in the house as his hostages... Once before, in "The Petrified Forest," Bogart gave us such a man, but that performance was relatively restrained compared to this beast at bay...

Amazing movie that makes you think.......2006-06-07

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.

Average customer rating:

Thriller
Pointless film!
The movie is good I think...
It's a GREAT film !
Great Film, Superb Acting!

Desperate Hours
Starring: Mickey Rourke , Anthony Hopkins , Mimi Rogers , Lindsay Crouse , and Kelly Lynch
Director: Michael Cimino
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00005V9HX
Release Date: 2002-04-16

Description

From Academy AwardÂ(r)-winning* director Michael Cimino comes this taut psychological thriller about a family held hostage in their own home. Starring Mickey Rourke, OscarÂ(r) winner** Anthony Hopkins, Mimi Rogers and Kelly Lynch, this nail-biting action film grabs you by the throatand leaves you gasping in terror. Prepare yourself. The Desperate Hours have begun.In dire need of a hideout, escaped convict Michael Bosworth (Rourke) uses his charming smile to gain entry into the posh home of Nora and Tim Cornell (Rogers and Hopkins) and their two children. While waiting for his beautiful lawyer-turned-accomplice (Lynch) to arrive, Bosworth's smile soon explodesinto homicidal rage when the Cornells desperately try to fight back. Holding the family at gunpointand ruthlessly pitting husband against wife, Bosworth's fury escalates into a shocking night of terror and cold-blooded murder. Finally, the family is forced to take a stand that will either destroy them...or unite them as never before.*1978: The Deer Hunter**1991: Actor, The Silence of the Lambs

Customer Reviews:

Thriller.......2005-08-03

I would agree with several other reviewers that this is a moving and captivating thriller! In the rare case that home invasions occur, they are absolutely frightening. Rourke is one of the best actors playing a slimy thug. He is very believable and Anthony Hopkins is as usual, brilliant. Michael Bosworth is a seasoned sociopath (Mickey Rourke), and Hopkins provides a great good vs. evil contrast in this one. Probably not for children under 16.

Pointless film!.......2005-05-30

When you decide to adapt a classic film you should take warning several aspects: Has the story aged? How has the suspense's concept altered for the new audiences?
We know about the professed sympathy of Cimino for Rourke. We saw him in The year of the Dragon. And somehow Mickey doesn't look credible as the distorted mind criminal. He is too rational and cold to represent that hard character. The illumination is another serious problem. The whole drama looks extremely theatrical: Anthony Hopkins looks uncomfortable with the role and Mimi Rogers is inexpressive. Elias Koteas is simply out of context and perhaps that's why the insipid dialogue. Maybe David Morse shows certain wild tendency. There is a rigidity in the dialogue. Obviously you assist to the common places: the internal disagreements in the policy procedure. Lindsay Cruise is assertive in this role. But the initial sequence of the getaway is terrific. It looks too artificial and the viewer' adrenaline simply is not emanated. The sumptuous photography saves the film of the collapse. The music didn't help to maintain the suspense. It is not easy to readapt a classic film of the fifties. Something similar happened with Cape fear `s remake.
The question might be around the new approach of the suspense and the new technologies. Bogart looked extremely old for the role and Rourke looked too elegant to be a convincing ex con.
Good entertainment for teenagers in a pop corn rainy weekend.

The movie is good I think..........2004-08-02

Don't understand why so many critics have given this movie only 1 star? It's not a pointless movie at all I think, the acting is brilliant, and it contains a beautiful, gripping scene where the "villain" played by David Morse is shot in some lake, very poetic done and in contrast the the rest of the set "locked" inside the house of the hostages. The picture-quality, even on DVD and for its' time, is really bad. Other than that it is an entertaining movie worth a peek...

It's a GREAT film !.......2003-11-04

Despite some of the glib, cute, reviews here, the cast is strong, the story is strong, the direction is strong. For the money, it's a purchase you won't regret.

The whole point of the film, as any film, is to entertain. This effort delivers what it promises...a taut, tense drama, that entertains.

No one liked this film because Hollywood NEVER forgives Michael Cimino, and they successfully "buried" him with this film, and the public bought it, as these reviews here show.

It's our loss, but at least we have this DVD.

Great Film, Superb Acting!.......2003-08-09

Going up against an original with the likes of Humphrey Bogart and Fredric March is daunting enough, but Cimino pulls it off in this riveting remake, eliciting outstanding performances from everyone involved (including Shawnee Smith and Danny Gerard as the terrorized children of Anthony Hopkins and Mimi Rodgers). I've never been a big fan of Lindsey Crouse, but even she is worth watching here (although her attempt at a Mormon Clarice Starling is a little grating).

Cimino's forte has always been action, and the film benefits greatly from the famous synergy between the director and Rourke (remember the great Year of The Dragon from the early 80's). There isn't a wasted frame in this picture, and Cimino puts just the right touches on this updated effort (Kelly Lynch as the steely blonde fembot attorney who collapses into jello in the face of Rourke's malignant criminality; Rodgers/Hopkins in typical 90's "marriage on the rocks"; Smith as the sullen teen who disses EVERYone in authority). David Morse and Elias Koteas tread a fine line in their performances as well, resisting the temptation to descend into Abbott-and-Costello farce as the two accomplices of borderline intellect.

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Stop..You're Making Me Hungry.......2007-06-11

Tension from start to finish! .......2007-04-28

Terrible!.......2007-03-14

The film gives us the most ruthless and disgusting gangsters the screen has yet seen..........2006-12-26

Amazing movie that makes you think.......2006-06-07

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.

Average customer rating:

THE DESPERATE HOURS (PAL DVD)
Director: William Wyler
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

PAL DVD, ALL REGIONS
DETECTIVE STORY
DD 2.0 ENGLISH, RUSSIAN
SUBTITLES: ENGLISH, RUSSIAN
FILM PRESTIGE

ASIN: B000RN6Y5K

Product Description

This is a PAL DVD, No Region Coding. Language: English 2.0 and Russian 2.0. Subtitles: English and Russian. Screen Format: 1.85:1. Black-and-white. 1955...........Plot:Dan Hilliard is a comfortable upper-middle-class executive with a wife and two children and a pleasant suburban home. His world seems quite in order, quite predictable. But then convicted murderer Glenn Griffin escapes from prison with his younger brother Hal and a ruthless thug named Kobish. The three escapees take over the Hilliard home, using it as an unsuspected resting place while a police manhunt scours the city for them. Glenn Griffin finds Dan Hilliard to be no pushover, but rather a determined fighter out to protect his home and family from this criminal invasion. But is a middle-aged businessman a match for three wiley killers?

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