Trio of escaped convicts, led by Humphrey Bogart, take Fredric March and his family hostage in their own home. A well-acted thriller directed by William Wyler that, unfortunately, doesn't have as much edge as it should. This doesn't even seem particularly gritty by 1955 standards and it's certainly tame in comparison to the decades of far more brutal home invasion movies. It is interesting and the cast does a good job for the most part, but it's lacking that extra something to give it the proper amount of tension it needs. I didn't even find these guys all that menacing. Plus the characters do things that just seem to make no sense other than to keep the plot going in the way the writer needs it to. It's certainly not a bad movie, and I would probably watch Bogart and March read the phone book, but I just can't help but feel that this doesn't quite click. At least for me. I really think it would have been much better if it had more of a film noir style and edge to it. As it is, it has no visual style at all and the only menace comes from threats and tough guy talk.

"The Desperate Hours" is a tense drama about the ordeal that an ordinary family goes through when their home is invaded by a group of convicts who have just escaped from prison. Their predicament and the desperation that they feel is immediately understood by audiences everywhere and this is what gives the movie so much power and potency. The family understandably feel indignant, violated and quite helpless but also recognise that they need to be resourceful and co-operative if they are to have any hope of survival.Joseph Hayes' well written screenplay was adapted from his own novel, which was in turn inspired by a real-life incident that received a great deal of press coverage in 1952. The knowledge that this type of hostage situation actually took place gives "The Desperate Hours" added credibility and despite the strict censorship standards that applied at the time, this movie undeniably still packs a powerful punch.When a group of three escaped convicts travel through a respectable suburban estate in their stolen car, their leader Glenn Griffin (Humphrey Bogart) notices one home with a child's bicycle outside its front door and decides that this is the ideal type of residence for the men to hide out in because, if the residents have children, they will obviously be easier to control. The gang members break into the house in which housewife Eleanor Hilliard (Martha Scott) is busy at work and park their car in the Hilliards' garage.Glenn, who's accompanied by his younger brother Hal (Dewey Martin) and Sam Kobish (Robert Middleton), is armed and orders Eleanor to disclose where her husband keeps his gun. Hal then takes charge of the husband's gun and Glenn forces Eleanor to make a telephone call to his girlfriend Helen Miller, to arrange for her to deliver some money to the house later that night. When Dan Hilliard (Fredric March) and his grown up daughter Cindy (Mary Murphy) return from work and ten-year-old Ralphie (Richard Eyer) returns from school, they walk into a horrific situation and all immediately become hostages.Glenn and local Deputy Sheriff Jesse Bard (Arthur Kennedy) had crossed swords in the past and because of this, Jesse is put in charge of the manhunt. Glenn tells Dan that the gang will leave as soon as his girlfriend arrives with the money. Police checks identify where Helen is and Jesse arranges for her to be followed, so that she can lead them to the convicts. These arrangements go wrong when Helen gets stopped for committing a traffic violation and the Hilliards' plight from that point on, gets progressively worse.Humphrey Bogart and Fredric March both give strong performances as two men who are polar opposites and regard each other with nothing but contempt. Bogart, as the vicious criminal, shows the level of strain he's under as he tries to evade the attentions of the police whilst also having to control not only his hostages but also his other gang members who both become unpredictable and dangerous at times. March is very believable as the conventional department store executive who's frightened by the predicament he's in and determined to protect his family at all costs. The quality of the acting by the supporting cast is also extremely good and contributes greatly to the success of this very intense and claustrophobic thriller.

Humphrey Bogart's final take on a crook's role is his finest as such and in a way closes the circle that opened almost twenty years earlier as Duke Mantee in 'The Petrified Forest'. A rare opportunity for an actor to show his gathered experience and professionalism so vividly and a treat for viewers. Some doubts have always been made about him to be maybe too old for the role but I don't think so. All I see is great acting and a believable bad guy. He is smart and ruthless in his wheeling and dealing. He provokes and observes, loves to control the situations and the family. While trying to fix himself money to resume the escape his time of hiding starts to seem like a twisted analysis of what makes an ordinary family tick. A kind of family he has obviously never had and feels betrayed and angered about it. He does have a younger brother and a half-witted partner with him, but they do not connect except on the means of escaping the law. In the end I got a feeling that during the time spent in the house in his own way he has already got a small portion of the sort of freedom he always wished for. With that point of view the final fast close shot of his face is thought provoking. A flashing example on effects of Bogart's expressive face and little gestures of his that were able to make grand suggestions to the scenes.March is almost equally impressive in his ways as a man running his family gently but firmly, a total opposite to Bogart's Griffin. He can also be equally menacing in defending his home specially in the last scenes. But his urge to use violence and brutality are strictly controlled by his care for his family. That love becomes his power as well as his weakness at handling the desperate incident. During the growing tension his role becomes something like a family man version of Jekyll and Hyde, of him being forced to adapt himself some aspects of his worst enemy to overcome the situation. Just watch March's and Bogart's expressions changing to and fro as they exchange threats. One can sense signs that in other circumstances the places could in fact change rather easily in their battle of wills. Although it's the acting that most impresses me in this movie, the director's work must also be very much appreciated. Wyler has used the house and its two floors with setups, camera angles and lighting effectively to stage and express the power play and threat. The tension keeps growing up by building situation upon situation and it never lets go, even when we're elsewhere out of the house or seeing what the law enforcement is up to at the same time.An excellent crime and hostage drama that hasn't lost none of its power in 52 years. A family unit as a representative of normal society colliding with outside terror is, after all, still a very active and contemporary subject.

The novel begins "Out of the fog they came..". Indeed. I remember this movie as being just a terrifically suspenseful ride, from the opening POV shot canvassing the neighborhood for a suitable hideout to the final clash between the two family "heads" over the son's fear and trust. As with any good psychological tale there is a lot here for everyone. What struck me particularly was the mirroring of the two families - one normal with all the right balances (male-female especially) and one totally perverse. One can view the Bogart-March pair as the family patriarchs and the Kobish-Ralphie pair as their respective sons. In fact, Kobish is basically a future Ralphie, should his rebelliousness remain unchecked (read whatever Oedipal theme you wish here). Thus it is entirely consistent that the climactic struggle center around the two patriarchs' power over the son Ralphie. And that at the very center of the struggle should be a gun, well, it doesn't get more Freudian, does it? Plus all sorts of neat tensions and characters. How about the FBI/police as the Superego, trying to resolve the Id(Bogart)-Ego(March) clash it sees from afar? Like I said, there is something here for everyone!