Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 5-September-10
Spoiler Rating: High

The Desperate Hours (1955)

Moviegoers often encounter tales about unexciting or deficient family men who reassert themselves by facing calamity (2012 is a recent example). Fans of classic movies will note that this has been going on for a long time. The Desperate Hours from 1955 is a first-rate example of this theme. It stars Fredric March as a suburban patriarch whose family is taken hostage by a trio of escaped convicts led by Humphrey Bogart. Over two long days March engages in a battle of wills while trying to safeguard the people he loves.

The fifties are an apt setting for this story since they epitomize a classic American squareness. In this case the husband and father is not deficient, but he does lack luster. He presides at the breakfast table in his big white house with his business suit pressed and his grey hair neatly Brylcreemed. His devoted wife (Martha Scott) bustles about seeing to everyone's comfort. His 19-year-old daughter (Mary Murphy) teases him about the lawyer she wants to marry who will never be good enough in his eyes. His much younger son (Richard Eyer) amuses them by attempting to act grown-up. His is a Leave It To Beaver world with a dark cloud on the horizon.

The cloud bursts when the father is at the office and only the mother is home. Bogart, his kid brother (Dewey Martin), and a lumbering cretin they met in jail (Robert Middleton) seize the house as a hideout. They plan to lie low for a few hours until a getaway is cleared. (There is also mention of Bogart's vendetta against a local cop, but this is scarcely developed.) As the day progresses the children return, then the father, until the whole family is subdued by the captors' guns. While Dad takes the fore as the challenged man of the house, each of them shows spirit in the face of danger. The boy advocates action so much that he increases his father's desire to prove himself a protector and hero.

The tension builds for all involved through a series of unexpected events. It seems amazing (and perilous) that ordinary life still goes on. When the nightmare extends into a second day the family members are forced to go about their business so as not to attract attention, yet they cannot seek help from the outside for fear of retaliation. The police are out in force but lack strong leads. The daughter's boyfriend (Gig Young) notices her nervous behavior but chalks it up to a recent fight. While the captives pull together, the convicts start to squabble among themselves. Each responds differently to their upper-middle-class surroundings: Bogart regards them with bitter hatred, advocating destruction and rape; his brother admires them with wistful envy; and the cretin just wants to wallow in them.

The implied question as to whether respectability elevates human nature, or at least doesn't dull it, is answered by the finale. The daily routine of the tie-wearing, bread-winning, clean-living man has not diminished his ability to fight back with whatever tools he has at hand. March, Bogart, and director William Wyler — all old pros — show that coarseness is not the hallmark of the true alpha male.

Copyright © 2010 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.