The Desperate Hours

An ordinary family house in Indianapolis. Three escaped convicts get inside and take the family hostage: Dan the father, the mother, a young woman and a small boy. The men are waiting for a delivery of money and will stay until it comes. The house has to go on looking normal from outside; the father goes to work, the daughter goes on her date, and every evening they come back. Glenn, who leads the convicts, believes he controls everything. William Wyler directs. Fredric March plays Dan and Humphrey Bogart plays Glenn. The source is Joseph Hayes's novel and the play made from it. The idea is the obligation to appear normal. The tension comes not from violence but from the family having to perform for the outside; every visitor is a threat. Bogart took the part late in his career, a deliberate return to the gangsters of his early years; he was fifty five at the time and the character had been written much younger. Wyler uses the house as a system: the stairs, the telephone, the front door and the window keep returning with the same functions. It was shot in widescreen and black and white. The same story was filmed again in 1990. Who it is for: viewers who like classical thrillers and single location construction. Who it is not for: the pace is slow, the family are types, and the ending resolves according to the moral expectation of its period.