FOURTEEN HOURS (56)

Directed by: Henry Hathaway (1951)

Starring: Paul Douglas, Richard Basehart, Agnes Moorehead, Barbara Bel Geddes

The Pitch: Police mobilise to rescue a young man who's climbed onto the ledge of a tall building and threatening to jump.

Theo Sez: Famous bit of 50s realism turns out rather thin, simply because there isn't enough going on : "Is he busted up over a gal?" offers gruff working-class cop Paul Douglas about the young man on the ledge, and it basically turns out that he is, plus he's the product of a broken home - and you know Mom's the villain of the piece as soon as you note she's played by Agnes Moorehead. Nor is there much to see among the onlookers, beyond the meeting-cute of a soggy young couple and crystalline Grace Kelly deciding to give her marriage another chance in her film debut (which is supposed to tie in with the "jumper" being a child of divorce, though Grace only sees him from a distance and has no idea about his background, so it doesn't really make a lot of sense). Notable for effectively acrophobia-inducing man-on-ledge shots, plus quaint period detail - reporters meekly submitting when told to move along, a young lady on the street politely declining the offer of a mint from a young gentleman ("I don't think we're acquainted") and, most hilariously, a calm, level-voiced psychiatrist on hand to explain the kid's problems : Douglas isn't quite as sympathetic as the film seems to think (it's a little shocking when he tricks the young man after giving his word that he won't), but the look he shoots said shrink when the Freudianisms start to fly ("All children - boys - are in love with their mothers, romantically") is eloquent indeed.