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Sometimes little known B-movies can unearth some solidly made gems, and 14 Hours is one of those movies. It may not be perfect, but it is highly entertaining, well-acted and smartly written. Roughly 90% of the film is about a man on a ledge threatening to jump and the various efforts to get him back inside. 14 Hours only stumbles when it briefly leaves this main narrative to craft vignettes of the on-lookers experiencing the drama unfold before them.
Grace Kelly and Jeffrey Hunter, in some of their first film roles, are attractive enough to gain attention from the camera, but they add nothing of value to the story besides breaking from it and muting the tension. Hunter is one half of a couple who meets during the chaos on the street and fall in love. Why the filmmakers decided that the film needed this story is anyone’s guess, it fills in time that would be better spent with Paul Douglas, as the beat-cop who spends most of the film working as a therapist and negotiator, and Richard Basehart, as the man threatening to jump. Kelly’s storyline is particularly useless, of only any value to hear something closer to her natural speaking voice before she adopted that affected faintly British way of talking. She’s wooden, which is of no surprise, and glamorous even in this embryonic form, but her two scenes could have been exorcised with no repercussions to the main story.
The only times that 14 Hours effectively cuts away from the main drama is when we witness a series of cab driver’s taking bets about when and if Basehart will jump. This cruel and uncaring world, this microcosmic glimpse at people finding entertainment in the misery of others adds to the film’s worldview of the big city as a cruel, uncaring place. Or the evangelist who keeps interrupting things to use this moment as an opportunity to peddle his wares, reflecting the base instinct to sensationalize a story for our own ends.
So why did I think that 14 Hours was so well-made? Paul Douglas and Richard Basehart deliver some great performances and are tasked with some tricky emotional material to play. Douglas in particular has to be someone trust-worthy and calm, even as he is cracking under the pressure of a job far outside of what he normally does. And Basehart is all twitchy impulses and exposed neurosis. They create a real connection as actors and exploit it to the fullest dramatic effect. The movie’s docu-drama style is the most gripping when we simply sit back and observe them.
Douglas isn’t the only character actor who gets a gripping role for this film – Agnes Moorehead and Robert Keith play Basehart’s parents who did a number on him by manipulating him with their personal vendettas against each other, and Barbara Bel Geddes plays the girl he ditched because of his parental issues and feelings of self-worth. Bel Geddes is a quiet, warm presence in the film, she doesn’t have much screen time, but she does equip herself well to get maximum impact.
14 Hours does so much so well that its faults can be forgiven. Sure the happy-ending is pure Hollywood, and a quick ten minute edit would have made it better, but in its brisk running time it lands several powerful blows and manages to be more suspenseful and exceptional than many major A-list films. Pity it’s become something of a forgotten film – seek it out.
