- published: 09 Feb 2016
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Fourteen Hours is a 1951 Film Noir drama film directed by Henry Hathaway, which tells the story of a New York police officer trying to stop a despondent man from jumping to his death from the fifteenth floor of a hotel.
This won critical acclaim for Richard Basehart, who portrayed the mentally disturbed man on the building ledge. Paul Douglas played the officer, and a large supporting cast included Barbara Bel Geddes, Agnes Moorehead, Robert Keith, Debra Paget and Howard Da Silva. It was the screen debut of Grace Kelly and Jeffrey Hunter, who appeared in small roles.
The screenplay was written by John Paxton, based on an article by Joel Sayre in The New Yorker. Sayre's article described the 1938 incident upon which the film was based.
Early one morning, a room service waiter at a New York City hotel is horrified to discover that the young man to whom he has just delivered breakfast (Richard Basehart) is standing on the narrow ledge outside his room on the fifteenth floor. Charlie Dunnigan (Paul Douglas), a policeman on traffic duty in the street below, tries to talk him off the ledge to no avail. He is ordered back to traffic patrol by police emergency services deputy chief Moksar (Howard Da Silva). But he is ordered to return when the man on the ledge will not speak to psychiatrists summoned to the scene. Coached by a psychiatrist (Martin Gabel), Dunnigan tries to relate to the man on the ledge as one human to another.
A young man, morally destroyed by his parents not loving him and by the fear of being not capable to make his girlfriend happy, rises on the ledge of a building with the intention of committing suicide. A policeman makes every effort to argue him out of that.
Keywords: alcoholic, balcony, based-on-article, based-on-true-story, belief-in-the-soul, bellhop, bet, betting-pool, broken-engagement, caught-in-a-net
Ofcr. Charlie Dunnigan: [Phoning to police headquarters] Dunnigan, Traffic "A."::Ofcr. Charlie Dunnigan: There's a jumper on the ledge... Hotel Rodney!
Walter, room service waiter: Operator!::Hotel Switchboard Operator: Good morning.::Walter, room service waiter: This is the waiter in 1505.::Hotel Switchboard Operator: I'll connect you with room service.::Walter, room service waiter: No, no!::Walter, room service waiter: I don't want a waiter, I am a waiter!
Robert Cosick: Everybody lies to me!
Robert Cosick: You should have ten good reasons for anything. That's a rule!
Ofcr. Charlie Dunnigan: Look, I almost had him a couple of times. I - I know I can con him in if I can just get my hands on what's bothering him.
Cab driver: [Discussing suicide] Yeah, that's a crime, ain't it, knockin' yourself off? They could throw ya in jail, couldn't they?
Cab driver: [about the jumper] Yeah, if I had my M-2, I could knock him off from here - clean!
Deputy Chief Moskar: [Inquiring about Cosick's hysterical mother] What goes with her anyway?::Dr. Strauss: [Disgusted] She's a case, just like the boy!
Robert Cosick: If those cops come near me... I'll jump!
Robert Cosick: Life stinks and you know it.
Fourteen years on a steam-pack sonny
trying to get the kit off my back
Pushing Shanghai to Liverpool sonny
Pissing in the wind and the flag
You're kipping out in the railway station
Now you've left the navy behind
You're hoping just to ride
Fourteen years of belligerence sonny
Working from Dakar to Belise
Fourteen years of Marine life, baby
Trying to keep a man of your knees
Your kipped out in a railway station
Now you've left the navy behind
You're hoping just to ride
hoping just to ride