The 1955 version of “Desperate Hours” features a 112 minute adaptation of Joseph Hayes’ novel and play of the same name. The movie is a film noir classic at a time when color movies were beginning to gain more popularity and the noir audience was eroding. Television was becoming more popular and movies were starting to change to try and meet this competition.
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In “Desperate Hours” three recent escapees from prison break into a middle-class home and hold the family members hostage. The movie suffers a little because the tension could be greater if there seemed to be more physical threat to the hostages. Instead of serious threats of violence, at times the movie strains trying to provide psychological threats, but somehow doesn’t quite work. Still “Desperate Hours” is film noir, a movie experience I always enjoy.
