Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 4-May-08
Spoiler Rating: High

Fourteen Hours (1951)

Wow. This movie knocked my socks off.

There they go, tumbling down from the 15th-story ledge of a New York hotel where I was sitting with a man named Robert. Immediately after the movie began Robert climbed out on the ledge to contemplate suicide and I went along with him, wondering how he could last for 14 hours of his time and I for one and a half hours of mine. But every minute of the experience was pure gold. For me, that is, and probably everyone else who has watched this film.

The would-be suicide (a superlative Richard Basehart) teeters high above the street as the action unfolds. It begins early morning on St. Patrick's Day when the crowds are headed to work or the parade and almost everybody stops to see if he will jump. As the sidewalks fill below, policemen swarm the building and environs. First on the scene is Charlie (Paul Douglas), the lowly traffic officer who called in the crisis. He is a simple guy with no experience in such things, and this works to his advantage. Robert warns everyone off except Charlie, regarding him immediately as a friend instead of antagonist.

As the day progresses Charlie keeps the conversation going while psychologists coach him from the sidelines, superiors bark orders about ropes and safety nets, and reporters thrust their cameras and microphones anywhere they can. Charlie and Robert discuss casual matters and share a pack of cigarettes (this is not, by the way, a movie for people afraid of heights), and we learn a little about the distraught man. Or rather, we witness a little of his personal life and what we see speaks volumes. Charlie is first relieved at his post by Robert's mother (Agnes Moorehead), a tightly wound woman who arrives with fluttering handkerchief and morphs from a pitiable figure to a disturbing candidate for blame. "I know you don't want to do this to me," she whimpers after failing to bring her son inside, and suddenly one wonders (including the cops and shrinks) what sort of worries she inflicted on him. Next up is the estranged father (Robert Keith) whom Robert calls "no good" but who appears to have a more genuine concern. A small reconciliation occurs, which is progress. But still Robert will not come in.

The effect of the situation on his fellow New Yorkers is, at worst, what one might expect. A group of cabbies, annoyed by the loss of a day's wages, bets on the hour of his fatal plunge. Yet the movie also considers a young man and woman who meet in the crowd and a married couple (including Grace Kelly in her debut) who rethinks its decision to divorce from a window opposite the hotel. Some people regard a stranger's despair and possible death as an inconvenience — it is a harsh world, after all — but others are inspired to make more of their own lives because of the suffering of another.

Darkness falls and Charlie's big chance is ruined by a religious freak trying to use Robert as an excuse to preach his drivel. (I threw a shoe at the maniac before the socks went!) The last hope arrives in the form of Robert's ex-fiancée (sweet-faced Barbara Bel Geddes), who would love him if only he let her. By this point everyone is exhausted, hungry, and stretched to the breaking point. As for me, I gasped and yelled and wiped a tear from my eye before it was over. Accepting that it is okay to benefit from Robert's pain, I pronounce these 14 hours among the finest I have spent.

Copyright © 2008 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.