Desperate Hours (1955)

Buy This Item Desperate Hours (1955) by Paramount  Available from Amazon  $14.95  on 8-28-2008     Humphrey Bogart is at his villainous best in William Wyler's taut home-invasion thriller, <I>The Desperate Hours</I>. Sharply adapted by John Hayes from his own fact-based novel and Broadway play, this marked a slight departure for Wyler, whose celebrated versatility is on ready display as Bogart--leading a panicky trio of escaped convicts--seizes control of a suburban family in the (dis)comfort of their own home. The domestic terror (similarly dramatized in the 1954 potboiler <I>Suddenly</I>) escalates as cautious patriarch Frederic March waits for an opportunity to retaliate, while the police (led by Arthur Kennedy) close in for an ambush. Viewers may recognize the home's exterior from TV's <I>Leave It to Beaver</I>, while its interior gives Wyler a sealed chamber for nail-biting advances and setbacks--and Bogey was rarely better at portraying ruthless, unpredictable menace. Poorly remade in 1990, <I>The Desperate Hours</I> remains a potent precursor to the many similar films (like <I>Panic Room</I>) that followed its enduring example. <I>--Jeff Shannon</I> Reader Reviews This is a very well done, suspenseful film. Bogart and March are excellent in the leads. What is especially fascinating is that, even though Paramount was the studio, the exteriors of the film were filmed on the Universal lot, and one can clearly see the Hillard's home as the same as the one in Leave it to Beaver. Lots of shots of the Universal lot where Desperate Housewives is filmed now, more than 50 years later.

Desperate Hours (1955) Available from Amazon Price: $14.95 Updated on 8-28-2008.

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