Fourteen Hours
Tags: suicidal

Plot synopsis:
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 (Basehart) is standing on the narrow ledge outside his room on the 15th floor. Charlie Dunnigan (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 (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.
The police identify the man as Robert Cosick and locate his mother (Agnes Moorehead), but her overwrought, hysterical behavior only upsets Cosick and seems to drive him toward jumping. His father (Keith), whom he despises, arrives. The divorced father and mother clash over old family issues, and the conflict is played out in front of the police. Dunnigan seeks to reconcile Robert with his father, whom Cosick has been brought up to hate by his mother. Dunnigan forces Mrs. Cosick to reveal the identity of a "Virginia" mentioned by Robert, and she turns out to be his estranged fiancee.
While this is happening, a crowd is gathering below. Cab drivers are wagering on when he will jump. A young stock-room clerk named Danny (Hunter) is wooing a fellow office worker, Ruth (Debra Paget), whom he meets by chance on the street. A woman (Grace Kelly) is seen at a nearby law office, where she is about to sign the final papers for her divorce. Amid legal formalities, she watches the drama unfold. Moved by the tragic events, she decides to reconcile with her husband.
After a while, Dunnigan convinces Cosick everyone will leave the hotel room so that he can rest. As Cosick steps in, a crazy evangelist sneaks into the room and Cosick goes back to the ledge. This damages his trust in Dunnigan, as does an effort by police to drop down from the roof and grab him. As night falls, Virginia (Barbara Bel Geddes) is brought to the room, and she pleads with Robert to come off the ledge, to no avail. All the while, the police, under the command of Moksar, are working to grab Robert and put a net below him.
Dunnigan seems to make a connection with Cosick when he talks about the good things in life, and he promises to take Cosick fishing for "floppers" (flounder) on Sheepshead Bay. Cosick is about to come inside when a boy on the street accidentally turns on a spotlight that blinds Robert, and he falls from the ledge. He manages to grab a net that the police had stealthily put below him, and he is hauled into the hotel. Dunnigan is greeted by his wife and son, and Danny and Ruth walk the street hand in hand.

Review: Here he is superb as a compassionate traffic cop.Richard Basehart plays a man threatening to jump from the ledge on a high floor of a hotel.
Jeffrey Hunter is likable as the man in the crowd outside the hotel who falls for her.This was Grace Kelly's first film role.
Although this film traffics in some of the worst movie clichés (the good-hearted, potato-nosed Irish-American cop; the conventional--and tacked-on--Happy Ending(tm)), it manages to rise above them, thanks to fine acting, a gripping story, and excellent production values.
(You feel teleported to the Manhattan of 1951.) The chemistry between Paul Douglas (as Officer Dunnegan) and an incredibly young Richard Basehart (as the suicidal young man) really drives the film.
I've watched this film a couple of times on the Fox Movie Channel and I really think it's a pretty good little suspense/drama.
Richard Basehart plays a man on the edge who decides to try and end it all perched on the ledge of a Manhattan hotel.
The first on the scene is traffic cop Paul Douglas who does his best to try and befriend, comfort and hopefully coax the unbalanced man back inside.
Director Henry Hathaway does a pretty good job of wringing out the drama and suspense and gives the film a nice, big city feel using some pretty impressive sets in the foreground and background.
FOURTEEN HOURS begins with Richard Basehart walking onto the ledge outside his hotel room.
A nearby cop (Paul Douglas) looks up and sees him on this ledge on the 15th floor and hurries over to the hotel to try to talk him out of jumping.
Soon, his superiors come and relieve him--they'll work on trying to get Basehart down and Douglas simply isn't trained for this sort of thing.
The plot is a literal cliffhanger or maybe skyscraper is more apt--- will a suicidal young Richard Basehart jump from his 20th floor ledge or not.
Good thing that the producers also come up with one of the best young actors of the time--- Basehart, who acts just foggy enough to teeter on a ledge and play Hamlet.
Then there's that genial roughneck Paul Douglas as the cop who tries to persuade him that it's really better to be than not-to-be.Note how ace studio director Hathaway keeps the hotel room bustling so that the static ledge shots don't become boring.
Henry Hathaway is the director of Fourteen Hours, which stars Richard Baseheart as Robert Cosick, the young man threatening to jump from a Manhattan skyscraper.
Paul Douglas is police officer Charlie Dunnigan who discovers the man and tries to talk him into coming off the ledge.
Other supporting actors are Agnes Moorehead as Mrs. Cosick (the mother), Robert Keith (the father), Grace Kelly, Jeffrey Hunter, Martin Gable, Barbara Bel Geddes (the girlfriend) and others.
Baseheart was something of a Hollywood idol in his day and died after completing the narration for the opening ceremonies of the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984.The story captures the skyline of New York, its people and media as the drama gives an air of immediacy to the suspense of whether or not the man will jump from the building.
As the 14 hours tick by, an assortment of people traipse in and out of his room: his shrew of a mother (Agnes Moorehead), his defeated father (Robert Keith), his former fiancee (Barbara Bel Geddes).
Grace Kelly's screen debut circles the plot like a remote satellite: she's on her way to finalize her divorce but, caught up in the drama of the would-be jumper, changes her mind.
(Why that plot strand didn't end up on the cutting room floor remains a puzzle.)  Meanwhile (as in Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole/The Big Carnival of the same year), a three-ring media circus gets underway.There's enough going on in Henry Hathaway's movie to keep you watching, but your heart stays well south of your throat.
"Fourteen Hours" is a tight and suspenseful film, generally extremely well done.But its cast is just crammed full with some of the greatest talent in motion picture history, and those players make this a must-see movie.It is strange, to me, that so many great actors, not necessarily big names, are not listed in the credits.Thank God for IMDb or those of us with faulty memories might not know for sure who those extraordinary performers are.I thought I recognized the very recognizable voice of Willard Waterman, but he is not given screen credit.
Nervous young man visiting New York City stands on the ledge outside his fifteenth-floor hotel room window threatening to jump; the first cop on the scene, a "flat foot" working stiff, establishes a connection with the kid just before the whole incident boils over into a media circus.
Strong central performances do bolster the melodrama, particularly by Paul Douglas as the good-hearted traffic officer (it's really Douglas' movie), Richard Basehart as the man on the ledge, and Howard da Silva as the police chief.
Although he really doesn't appear in many scenes, the show is actually stolen by all the others, especially by Paul Douglas, who makes one of his best performances as well, - the scenes in which Richard really acts couldn't be more convincing of a man at the end of his tether, his life in ruins, his character shattered from the beginning, all shaking nerves and capable of being fatally upset by any unpleasant detail.
Even though the police and firemen are all professionals and know what to do, nothing can stop mistakes from being committed, and here a tremendous lot of people are involved in them, including a preacher, vulture journalists, a league of doctors, bookmakers, irresponsible youngsters adding to the mess, there are a lot of minor dramas in this film, adding it to Henry Hathaway's already fine collection of semi-documentaries, among which this is definitely one of the best.
After passing on a hotel waiter's delivery of breakfast, troubled young Richard Basehart (as Robert Cosick) steps out on the ledge of a New York City hotel, and threatens to jump.
Basehart's psyche is made more insightful through conversations with Douglas, and a parade of interested parties; including self-centered mother Agnes Moorehead (as Christine Hill Cosick), henpecked father Robert Keith (as Paul E.
Cosick), and wholesome ex-girlfriend Barbara Bel Geddes (as Virginia Foster).Director Henry Hathaway's "Fourteen Hours" milks billowing curtains and skyline angles for all they are worth, registering a great amount of anxiety for his "Man on the Ledge".
By the way, the cast of thousands includes dozens of "bit" players worth connecting with (I started with switchboard-ready Sandra Gould of "Bewitched", and found something right from George Putnam).******** Fourteen Hours (3/6/51) Henry Hathaway ~ Richard Basehart, Paul Douglas, Barbara Bel Geddes.
A man climbs out onto the ledge outside his 15th-floor hotel room and threatens to jump.
The initial shock of the man on the ledge dissipates quickly and then things become rather mundane and dull.Richard Basehart plays Robert Cosick, the man on the ledge, but it is Paul Douglas, playing the cop trying to talk him back inside, who is the real star of the film.
There's some good interplay between Dunnigan and Robert, performed wonderfully by Douglas and reasonably well by Basehart.
And, in her first film role, there's Grace Kelly playing a woman who rather bizarrely makes a life-altering decision based on the fact she sees some guy she doesn't know standing out on that ledge.
The performances by Kelly and by Jeffrey Hunter and Debra Paget playing the young would-be couple are fine but their characters add nothing of value to the film.
Paul Douglas and Richard Basehart carry the movie on their shoulders ;the movie has got the three unities: time,place and(almost) action :I write "almost" because two minor subplots(Grace Kelly's appointment and the Jeffrey Hunters/Debra Paget romance)are mostly filler.All that remains is excellent:the film continues the tradition of the Freudian movie which thrived in the precedent decade with Hitchcock,Lang ,Tourneur and Siodmak and the actors direction is first class ;Douglas and Basehart hold the audience breathless and there's no lull:considering the limitations there are working under in space and in time,it's a true tour De force ;the interventions are brilliant:Mrs Moorehead is an actress who makes all her scenes count;even the sometimes bland Bel Geddes can play her game well.Douglas ,when he suggest the suicidal young man go fishing with him,becomes a new father for him,just like Cooper and Tone were new fathers for Cromwell in "lives of a Bengal Lancer";in "souls at sea" there is another father/son relationship.I have always loved Henry Hathaway's movies,from "Peter Ibbetson" TO "kiss of death" , from" the trail of the lonesome pine" to " true grit" (1969)and from "Niagara" to "legend of the lost" ."14 hours" is to be ranked among his best..
Alternately cynical and ebullient, this film evokes the best and worst of the reality TV generation with it's breathless minute-by-minute commentary from news reporters who seem as frantic as it's desperate protagonist.A horribly mis-cast Richard Basehart as "the boy" is difficult to watch.
Basehart can deliver the goods on the ledge though, he just seems a bit long in the tooth for confused youngster.The movie excels in its tense dialog between "the traffic cop" and "the boy" but it falls flat in every other scene.
More police and some doctors then turn up, but the man on the ledge insists he'll only talk to the traffic cop and so he's called back in to help the situation.
This film, based on a true story, stars Richard Basehart as a man who threatens to jump from a city skyscraper.
The background story is good also and while there is a bit of over acting ( the woman who plays Basehart's Mother), the character roles are quite good.
It's based upon a true incident, though the film is opened up for the sake of the large and screen-worthy cast.Paul Douglas is a NYC cop pounding a beat who gets the call of a jumper on the 14th floor ledge of a downtown building.
Basehart is adequate and the hall of fame supporting cast (Jeffrey Hunter, Grace Kelly, Barb Bel Geddes, Agnes Moorehead, Debra Paget, Howard Da Silva etal) struggles gamely to avoid the dive into the pavement the script soon takes.
"Fourteen Hours" is a low budget offering with a simple plot and a relatively short running time but it's also an incredibly gripping drama about a disturbed young man who threatens to commit suicide by jumping off a skyscraper window ledge.The story's based on the real life incident which involved John Wilson Warde who on 26 July 1938 leapt to his death from one of the highest window ledges of the Hotel Gotham in New York City.
The waiter reports what's happened to the hotel manager and at the same time, traffic cop Charlie Dunnigan (Paul Douglas) who is working on the street below, alerts his colleagues to what's going on before swiftly going up to the would be jumper's room.
There Dunnigan poses as another hotel guest and starts a conversation with the troubled Robert Cosick (Richard Basehart) who despite Dunnigan's encouragement, refuses to step back into his room.Soon, the police, newspaper reporters and a couple of psychiatrists arrive, Dunnigan is ordered back to his traffic duty and outside a large crowd gathers and radio and television crews quickly set up their equipment.
The psychiatrists discover that Robert is unwilling to speak to anyone but Dunnigan and so he's duly called back to the scene by Deputy Chief Moksar (Howard Da Silva).The police locate the young man's divorced parents but Robert only becomes more upset by the arrival of the hysterical Mrs Cosick (Agnes Moorehead) and also fails to communicate properly with his father (Robert Keith) from whom he's been estranged for many years.
Robert's predicament is eventually resolved but in a most unexpected way.In "Fourteen Hours", the despair of a solitary man on the ledge provides a stark contrast to the frantic activity of the large number of people in his hotel room.
Similarly, this man's lonely and desperate life or death situation is seen as insignificant in a large city where the onlookers who watch him simply regard the whole incident as a gross inconvenience and even take bets on what time he'll jump.The story's subplots which involve a couple meeting in the crowd and falling in love and a woman changing her mind about proceeding with her planned divorce also emphasise how the lives of the city and its people drive relentlessly on because one person's crisis is totally insignificant in this kind of environment.Robert Cosick is a man with a history of mental problems and his instability at the time of his crisis on the ledge is explained as being caused by the inadequacies of his parents and the way he was treated by them.This movie has a cast who turn in some good performances but it's the contributions of Basehart and Douglas which really stand out.
As tension builds up thousands of new Yorkers as well as tourists gathered beneath the hotel to watch the show including two star struck lovers Ruth & stock and box boy Danny Kempner, Debra Paget & Jeffery Hunter, who ends up talking a walk down Wall Street arm and arm by the time the show or movie is finally over.
There was also a bunch of taxi drivers taking bets when Cousick would take his fatal dive just to pass, since they weren't doing any business anyway, the time of day that after 14 hours went into the night.Up on the 15th floor Dunnigan does his best to talk Cousick out of killing himself but is interrupted by police top head shrinker or psychiatrist Dr. Strauss, Martin Gable, who's advice in what he should do, get in touch with his inner feelings, makes things worse not better.
***SPOILERS***It was Virginia who finally got to Cousick but as usual the police, with the exception of Officer Dunnigan,almost blew it by jumping the gun as he was about to come back into his hotel room setting up the exciting final heart dropping, of many, scene in the movie.
Look for a young 21 year old Grace Kelly as Louise Ann Fuller who by watching all the action provided by Cousick from her lawyers office decided not to divorce her husband Thomas, James Warren, by seeing that some people in the world have far more problems that she and her husband do!P.S The movie was based on 26 year old John Warde who jumped to his death off the 17th floor of the Hotel Gotham on July 26, 1938.
Let's have a young man climb out on the ledge of a New York hotel and build up a back story about his tsuris and at the same time tell small tales of the diverse witnesses to the guy's dilemma.That precisely how the movie moves along from point to point, a little mechanically, but suspenseful and engaging.
Most of the work is done by Richard Basehart as the would-be suicide and Paul Douglas as the traffic cop who befriends him and alternately wheedles and lambastes him.Movies mavens will be left agog after they see the list of supporting and bit players, many uncredited, who were to go on to climb to dazzling heights in Hollywood, either as stars or as indispensable supports -- Grace Kelly, Jeffrey Hunter, Jeff Corey, Brian Keith, Richard Beymer, and John Cassavetes among them.The movie doesn't wallow in easy sentiment.
Richard Basehart is a distraught man perched on the fifteenth floor ledge of a NYC hotel.
Hirsch argues that the subtext of the film is that the Richard Basehart character ("Robert Cosick") is gay but in 1951, Hollywood was not permitted to deal with such gay themes explicitly.
Hirsch makes some good points particularly in his description of Charlie Dunnigan, the down-to-earth cop (convincingly played by Paul Douglas) who is set up as a well-adjusted family man in contrast to the tormented Cosick.14 Hours works on two levels.
There are other characters that add to the film's verisimilitude high above street level: the slew of cops who are continually trying to physically remove Cosick from his perch as well as the obsessed preacher, the 'man of God' who sabotages the rescue plan almost culminating in disaster!The second level takes place 'below' the main action.
She blends into this performance a similarity to "Magnificent Ambersons" and can still be that holy terror as she displayed as Minnie in "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte."The picture again deals with mob psychology with some people anxiously awaiting Basehart to take the fatal plunge.Sidebars include Jeffrey Hunter and Debra Paget, as a young couple who meet among the mob and Grace Kelly, about to divorce her husband before this drama gives her a new lease on life and she is willing to try to sustain the marriage.Barbara Bel Geddes appears briefly as Virginia, the girlfriend to Robert (Baseheart) She is effective here.Martin Gabel's role as the psychologist fascinated me.
What might be more fascinating to me than the psychological drama playing out between the man on the ledge and the beat cop trying to talk him down, is the cross section of humanity on the street below with disparate views on how to interpret the situation.
They range from the compassionate woman Ruth (Debra Paget) who skips work to voice moral support for the troubled man, right up to the cynical cab drivers making book on how soon Robert Cosick (Richard Basehart) will jump.
The police shrink brought in on the case laid out a fairly well rationalized life pattern for the suicidal man, but it sounded just a bit too pat for my understanding, even if he hit the highlights.Nice support work here from a cast filled with future luminaries of the movie and TV screen, with a young Grace Kelly in her first film appearance, Barbara Bel Geddes, Howard Da Silva, Frank Faylen and Jeff Corey.