"You don't have it in ya, Pop."

The Desperate Hours (1955) is a movie that was based on actual events. This story originally appeared in the newspaper as it was developing, then was gobbled up by Joseph Hayes who wrote a novel about the story. He then wrote a play about it. Finally, the story was turned into a screenplay by Hayes and shot by Paramount.

While he was in charge of Santana Productions, Humphrey Bogart saw the novel for The Desperate Hours and wanted to buy it. His small production company, although successful, still couldn’t compete with the major studios in a bidding war. He lost to Paramount. But Paramount knew he would be a good fit in the role of Glenn Griffin, the main gangster bad guy.

The story begins on a typical morning in suburban America in the 1950s. The Hilliard family is getting ready to attack the day. There is Eleanor, the housewife who sees everyone off, Dan, her husband who has to go to work, and finally Cindy and Ralphie, the two children of the family who have to go off to school. Once this all-American family disperses, things start to happen.

In a story that has been used over and over again by writers of all mediums, a group of gangsters invades the home when everyone but the housewife is away. They have broken out of prison and are waiting for something, typically it is money or a girl as in The Petrified Forest (1936). Bogie plays the groups leader, Glenn Griffin, who is a similar character to Bogie’s Duke Mantee in The Petrified Forest. The only difference is Glenn is more grizzled, a man with no ideals so to speak like Duke possessed. Also new is Griffin has a brother, Hal, so the hardened gangster has some sort of heart as he cares for his younger brother.

When the family returns from their hard day at school or work, they are shocked to find the gangsters in their home. A battle of wills ensues between Glenn and Dan to see who will breakdown first. Will Glenn make good on his promises to leave when he gets what he wants or will Dan manage to get these gangsters out of his house so his family can live a normal life. I think we know how this will end.

On Broadway, Paul Newman and Karl Malden where the stars who matched wits. Newman as Glenn and Malden as Dan. In the movie version, Bogie was supposed to match wits with Spencer Tracy. The two were good friends who hadn’t appeared in a movie together in over 25 years. They wanted to appear together one more time before they died. For some reason, it is suspected because of an issue with top billing, Tracy backed out of the production and Fredric March stepped in.

The story is classic and the movie is as well. For a major Hollywood star, who had developed into a romantic lead at one point in his career, Bogie still enjoyed being the bad guy. Glenn Griffin is a fitting tribute to Bogie’s other gangster characters who he played when he was first starting out.

This was the penultimate movie in Bogie’s career. The movie was not as successful as Paramount originally hoped it would be, but it was the last great movie of Bogie’s character. His final movie, The Harder They Fall (1956) will be looked at tomorrow.