William Wyler’s intense nail-biting thriller The Desperate Hours shows Humphrey Bogart at his wicked best. Adapted from a factual Broadway play and novel written by John Hayes, this pointed to a slight departure for Wyler, whose celebrated versatility is on ready display. In the film, Bogart leads a terrified trio of convicts who have escaped and tries to take control of a residential family. The domestic threat escalates as the capable patriarch Frederic March wait for a chance to act while the authorities (led by Arthur Kennedy) prepare for an ambush. A similar plot with that of the poorly made 1954 movie Suddenly. The home featured in the movie can be recognized by viewers from TV’s Leave it to Beaver while providing Wyler an enclosed chamber for explosive advances and drawbacks as well. Although Bogey was not always good at portraying callous, prickly menace, The Desperate Hours is still a viable precursor to many similarly themed films like Panic Room while its 1990 remake was very poorly made.
–Jeff Shannon
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