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24 comments in total

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18 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
Despite flaws, a fine little gem, 24 February 2005

Author: WilliamTelevision from United States

Although this film traffics in some of the worst movie clichés (the good-hearted, potato-nosed Irish-American cop; the conventional--and tacked-on--Happy Ending(tm)), it manages to rise above them, thanks to fine acting, a gripping story, and excellent production values. (You feel teleported to the Manhattan of 1951.) The chemistry between Paul Douglas (as Officer Dunnegan) and an incredibly young Richard Basehart (as the suicidal young man) really drives the film. Basehart plays his part with a combination of brittleness and patrician airs that make his character believable. Douglas thankfully doesn't overplay his role; he has to be father-confessor to the young man while attempting to steer him away from thoughts of self-destruction. Some years after seeing this film, I read the non-fiction article that it is based on in an anthology (the article was originally published in The New Yorker as "The Man on the Ledge"). Let us just say that the ending of the article and the film diverge somewhat.

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16 out of 17 people found the following comment useful :-
Yes, 11 October 2002

Author: watercrake from Canada

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".

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16 out of 18 people found the following comment useful :-
Absolutely Superb -- and What a Cast!, 9 January 2007

Author: David (Handlinghandel) from NY, NY

If I were in emotional distress, I would want someone like Paul Douglas to try to help me out. He was one of the best actors in Hollywood during his too-shirt career. Here he is superb as a compassionate traffic cop.

Richard Basehart plays a man threatening to jump from the ledge on a high floor of a hotel. Basehart was another of the best actors of the late 1940 and the fifties. He pulls off an almost totally stationary role very well. This is particularly intriguing given his vibrant, physical performance in "La Strada" a few years after this.

I had never heard of "Fourteen Hours" till it appeared at my neighborhood video store yesterday. Now, it is one of my top noirs. And that is saying a great deal.

Agnes Moorehead, another superb performer of the period, plays Basehart's mother. She engages in the same sorts of hysterics that are so memorable in "Citizen Kane" and particularly in "The Magnificent Ambersons." It's a very fine performance. What a shame that to the degree that she is known at all today, she is primarily known for her (admittedly mildly amusing role in the "Bewitched" series! Robert Keith is just the kind of father (in this role) who might have a confused, possibility suicidal son. Here he plays a mousy businessman. Two decades later, he was to be memorable in a totally different kind of role, in Don Siegel's "The Lineup"! Debra Paget is very appealing in a very small role that gets her fourth billing. Jeffrey Hunter is likable as the man in the crowd outside the hotel who falls for her.

This was Grace Kelly's first film role. She looks gorgeous and seems very poised. Her store, that of an onlooker on her way to divorcing her husband, is extraneous. Yes, it sets up a different kind of relationship to others and to the world from what the Basehart character has. But it is far from integral.

Barbara Bel Geddes is very likable as the girl who loves Basehart. She has a small but very significant role.

The movie is very sad. In a way, it is as if Tennessee Williams had written a very fine script for a thriller. We like many of the characters and are put off by others. But we're deeply moved by what goes on.

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18 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :-
A marvelous little unsung film., 22 February 1999
Author: Honora from Jersey City, New Jersey

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.

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15 out of 18 people found the following comment useful :-
Earnest And Well-Meaning...Only Partially Successful (SPOILER), 14 April 2003

Author: secragt from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Others have commented accurately about the pitfalls of this interestingly premised but thinly executed jumper negotiation picture. Basehart is adequate and the hall of fame supporting cast (Jeffrey Hunter, Grace Kelly, Barb Bel Geddes, Agnes Moorehead, Debra Paget, Howard Da Silva etal) struggles gamely to avoid the dive into the pavement the script soon takes. Worth special mention, however, is the splendid perfomance by usual character actor Paul Douglas as Charlie Dunningham, rescuing this otherwise mediocre flick and making it watchable. Watch for a young Jeff Corey as a uniformed cop who mugs shamelessly but has little to do. How eerie that Grace Kelly and Jeffrey Hunter would both be cut down tragically so early in life.

SPOILER WARNING: Once you've seen this movie, consider that the original ending featured Basehart succeeding in his suicide but because of the tragically similar suicide of one of the producers' children the week this picture opened, the studio quickly pulled and re-edited the movie to settle on the happier ending as a gesture of sensitivity. The original much bleaker version is not known to exist but if you watch the ending carefully, you'll notice that the actor on the net is NOT Basehart, who was not available for reshooting at the last minute. A shame that the original version may not exist; the writer was capable of stingingly fatalistic noir and this might have been a much different movie had it been left intact.

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14 out of 17 people found the following comment useful :-
Pretty Good Little Film, 25 September 2003
Author: BillDP from New Jersey

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.

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31 out of 54 people found the following comment useful :-
What was Cosick's problem?, 25 January 2004

Author: FeverDog from Center of the Universe

Hmm, let's see...an overbearing mother, a distant father, failed relationships with women. Weren't these once the "causes" of homosexuality?

It's obvious from the beginning that Cosick is a major closet case who's tormented by his "perversion" and unable to speak about it. Sure, there were a few vague reasons given for his discontent, but nothing overly stated. This evasiveness was typical of the era, since homosexuality was of course taboo subject matter at the time.

Another user noted that Cosick's suicide attempt was successful in the movie's original ending. Death was often the punishment for being gay - see THE CHILDREN'S HOUR, THE DETECTIVE, SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER, THE SERGEANT, etc.

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7 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Paul Douglas carries this film, 27 January 2009

Author: donofthedial from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

It's been perhaps 15 years since I have seen this picture and despite the strong and competent cast of Hollywood favorites, it's Paul Douglas who carries this film on the strength of the sincerity and warmth he brings to his character.

Paul Douglas was 42 years old, entering middle age, before he made his first film of any consequence in 1949.

He came from a long career in radio as a very popular announcer at CBS in the 1930s and 1940s who was often the man at the mic for the Glenn Miller show for Chesterfield cigarettes. With Judy Holliday, he scored a major Broadway success in BORN YESTERDAY (though the film role went to Broderick Crawford). He was signed to a contract by 2oth Century-Fox and spent most of the next ten years successfully appearing in dramas, comedies, fantasies and even some science fiction before passing away prematurely in 1959.

FOURTEEN HOURS is typical of the appeal he brought to his many films. It's based upon a true incident, though the film is opened up for the sake of the large and screen-worthy cast.

Paul Douglas is a NYC cop pounding a beat who gets the call of a jumper on the 14th floor ledge of a downtown building. Once the experts appear, Douglas is sent back on the beat, but turns out the potential jumper doesn't want to talk to them. He wants to talk 'to that cop who was here before'. They find him, bring him back and the story continues from there.

It's not a faultless film, but that doesn't matter. It's a great period piece and a showcase for Douglas.

Excellent direction and camera work, including location shooting in a NYC long vanished.

I recommend it without reservation.

And cheers for Paul Douglas who has never gotten the acclaim he deserves.

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7 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Superb but oddly underrated little thriller., 22 September 2008

Author: Arun Vajpey from Wootton Bassett, England

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

1951 seemed to be a year for films depicting rescue of an individual in peril; there were three such films - ACE IN THE HOLE, THE WELL and of course, FOURTEEN HOURS. All three were very good films but I like the last mentioned best. The camera-work from several different perspectives is superb, the involvement of the onlookers just right and the rescue efforts looked quite realistic. I disagree with comments that some situations and characters were clichéd; many major cities did have beefy Irish-American beat cops in the early 50s and so Paul Douglas' character is perfectly acceptable. Likewise, the 'good ending' is not necessarily traditional; after all, the rescue attempt would have been in progress for hours and the police were pulling out all stops. The odd thing is that although the film is available on DVD, it remains relatively unknown even among connoisseurs of Film Noir.

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7 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
A Noir Hamlet, 12 June 2008
Author: anonymouseus from New York City

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.

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