14 Hours (1951)

14 Hours is a movie produced by 20th Century Fox and issued on DVD under its Fox Film Noir series.  That is somewhat funny because film noir is most often associated with the poverty row studios like RKO, Monogram, and Republic, among others because they were cheap and quick to produce, while Fox strove to be the best of the best with a stable of stars like Tyrone Power, Henry Fonda, Don Ameche, Gene Tierney, Marilyn Monroe, and, of course, Shirley Temple.  Noirs were typically outside the taste of Fox's head Darryl F. Zanuck, also, but occasionally one slipped through the system.

Film Noir generally followed a pseudo documentary style; often with voiceover narration explaining back-story, motivations, or the protagonist's thoughts. Typically urban environs, claustrophobic interiors, cops, robbers, private dicks, a femme fatale, night time settings, and low key lighting were the usual ingredients used to showcase the criminal activities that noir specialized in bringing to viewers. These elements were cheap and a poverty row studio could grind out these films on black and white film stock, in record time using a (not always) good script and competent but not necessarily expensive talent. 

Another factor in the decision to make cheap film noir might well have been the rise of television, which was in its infancy in 1951, but you can believe the studios were noticing it and its impact on their bottom line.  This movie in fact makes a big display of the media attention the protagonist draws with his jumper routine.   I guess I better tell you a bit about the movie -

Richard Basehart (He Walked by Night) plays a distraught young man who threatens to jump from one of the top floors of a big New York hotel.  There is a big cast of new talent supporting Basehart including Grace Kelly, Barbara Bel Geddes, Jeffrey Hunter, Leif Erickson, John Cassavettes, Richard Beymer, and many others who would go on to decent film careers after this auspicious start.  

Directed by journeyman director Henry Hathaway, the main action concerns a hotel ledge, jumper Richard Basehart, Irish beat cop Dunnigan played by Paul Douglas, and a ever-changing supporting cast including Howard DaSilva, Agnes Moorehead, Robert Keith, Debra Padget, Jeffrey Hunter, Jeff Corey, Barbara Bel Geddes - the list goes on and on. 

Based on a true story, the action is confined to the window ledge, the hotel room inside where the police wait, and the street onlookers who occupy the hours in various ways.  The onlookers provide most of the reactions to keep the pace up. 

The action starts early in the morning when a room service waiter delivers a tray then turns around with the check and can't see the occupant. A search of the room reveals the feet of the occupant on the window ledge.  A loud whooping scream from a woman across the street calls attention to the jumper and the beat cop Dunnigan (Paul Douglas) is first on the scene. He calls it in and then the whole thing unwinds over the next 14 hours.

Dunnigan tries to talk the young man down but arriving Deputy Chief Moksar (Howard Da Silva) sends him back to traffic duty only to have to call him back when the jumper only will talk to Dunnigan. Soon a crowd gathers, reporters arrive, and traffic grinds to a halt. This is where some of the onlookers are introduced through their conversations and we see Debra Padget, Jeff Hunter, Ossie Davis, and more, who are waiting in the throng below.
 
Psychiatrists arrive, fingerprints reveal the jumper's identity, his family members are sought and Agnes Moorehead, playing a mother even crazier than the jumper reveals herself.  She, frustrated in her aspirations when she became a mother, turned the kid away from his father in some Freudian stuff that made me scratch my head. The father naturally turned to drink, etc. The film plays out and the ending is based on a fluke which I'll leave to your own viewing.

The Fox DVD presents the 92 minute B&W movie in full screen mode as it appeared in the theaters.  There is a fair full length commentary by Foster Hirsch and a four page insert covering some of the back story of 14 Hours.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day