Release Date: October 5, 1955
Running Time: 113 minutes
Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Fredric March, Martha Scott, Dewey Martin, Mary Murphy, Richard Eyer, Robert Middleton
Directed by: William Wyler
Glenn Griffin and two thugs escape prison and take hostages in this taught crime drama late in the career of Humphrey Bogart. If the plot sounds familiar it’s because it’s very similar to that of 1936’s The Petrified Forest, a film that also featured Bogart as the lead criminal. The premise is the same yet these two films are very different in tone and style. In The Petrified Forest Bogart is playing to the back row as if he were on stage, a holdover from when he was on stage in that same role. Here he is more seasoned and much more competent. The film also doesn’t feel like several different films spliced together the way The Petrified Forrest does.
The plot is very simple. Dan Hilliard (Fredric March), his wife Ellie (Martha Scott), and their two children Cindy (Mary Murphy), and Ralphie (Richard Eyer) are the typical American family. Dan is the breadwinner while his wife takes care of the home. Mary is a teenager who had a straight laced steady boyfriend and Ralphie is the younger brother who is a bit mischievous but generally a good son. The only thing that puts them in the path of Glenn and his two fellow escaped cons, his brother Hal (Dewey Martin) and the demented Sam (Robert Middleton), is while driving through the neighborhood Glenn spots Ralphie’s bike in the yard and decides that a family with a young kid would be less likely to make trouble for them for fear of the child’s life. They take the family hostage, looking for a hideout while waiting for Glenn’s girlfriend to arrive with some money so that they can flee south of the border and out of the law’s reach.
What happens over the remainder of the film is tense and disturbing at times but it also has some logistical and logical flaws that seem hard to swallow. For instance, Glenn allows Cindy to leave on a date with her boyfriend ostensibly to avoid any suspicion. This seems much more risky than just having her tell the boyfriend anything to prevent him from coming over. It is played out over a phone call between the two where the boyfriend is too insistent to accept she won’t have him over that night but it plays false. Glenn could have easily taken another hostage should this happen minimizing any chance of Cindy losing composure and spilling the beans of her family’s predicament. Likewise Glenn allows Dan to go to work rather than have him call in sick. Sure, there is the threat of harm to his family if he goes to the police but this seems like too much of a gamble.
But aside from these leaps of logic the film is taught and the tension is real, something that the earlier film The Petrified Forrest failed at. The film doesn’t hold back actually showing the criminals as indiscriminate killers, willing to kill an innocent passerby who happens to notice a strange car in the Hilliard’s garage. Only Hal comes across as sympathetic, first defending Cindy from the advances of Sam, then later realizing things between all of them were turning sour and knowing when to bail on his brother. His final outcome is tragic as he is the only one of the criminals we feel any real sympathy for.
We also see the story from the police’s perspective as they narrow in on the escapees. We are treated occasionally to scenes involving the clues that help narrow down their search. It’s great in providing a ticking clock for the criminals as well as for the Hilliards. Director William Wyler was no newbie to cinema having helmed some of the greatest films of the era. He took what could have been a generic hostage film and imbued it with an overall sense of dread and realism that elevates it above many of its contemporaries. Still, he knew what type of movie he was making and didn’t try to reinvent the genre. It hits all the typical notes for this type of film and ends on a note that is no surprise to anyone.
But it doesn’t need to be. A film isn’t great simply by being surprising. All it needs to do is be great at what it is and this film is just that. It takes many familiar tropes and portrays them perfectly. There are a few stumbling blocks mentioned earlier but even though they seem a bit far fetched those scenes are still tensioned filled and a joy to watch. Bogart is great, chewing the scenery in a way only he could and he is surrounded by supporting actors and actresses who all nail their roles to perfection making his partners as well as the Hilliards well rounded characters. This really helps ratchet up the tension as we can identify with the family and dread what Glenn and Sam (not so much Hal) may do to them. It’s legitimately scary and disturbing at times lending a sense of realism that isn’t always found in this type of film.
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