Aaron Igay I've always seemed to enjoy films that were about a single event in real time. Archival time is obviously necessary for any story that spans more than a few hours, but real time films just seem to be inherently engaging. OK so the film isn't 14 hours long, but it does all take place in one spot on one day. This noir about a jumper on the side of a skyscraper in NYC is packed with great (if slightly cliché) characters, including the on-screen debut of Grace Kelly. Unfortunately many of the actors in this film were blacklisted during the HUAC witch hunt a few years later and would not be seen in films again. Uniquely, there is no score or music in the film outside of the titles which further adds to the realism.

dbdumonteil 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.

MartinHafer FOURTEEN HOURS begins with Richard Basehart walking onto the ledge outside his hotel room. He's about to jump but can't quite bring himself to do it. 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. However, the so-called experts don't seem to get through to them, so they get Douglas back--after all, he had developed some rapport with the jumper. Soon, a series of family members are brought to help out, though in hindsight his mother (Agnes Moorehead) visiting was probably NOT the best idea. Does he jump or does he chose life? And, why in the first place did he decide to end it all? See for yourself to find out--you won't be sorry you did.This film has one of the simpler plots I can think of--yet it all seemed to work very well. This is because the film was written so very well and the actors managed to make the most of it--especially Douglas as a sort of "everyman" cop. Taut direction, excellent lighting and a first-class production all around sure helped. Who would have thought such a deceptively ordinary idea could be handled so well?

Michael Morrison "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. Here at IMDb, though, that is corrected.And speaking of voices, George Putnam, for many decades an active and recognized television and radio voice, was also not given credit, although he did say his name as an on-the-scene TV reporter.The terribly under-rated Harvey Lembeck had a small part, with lines and everything, and still did not get screen credit.And wasn't that the prolific Louis Jean Heydt as one of the police officers? And he doesn't get listed even here.Oh, the list is a long one and few movies, of whatever epic size or fame, have ever presented such a magnificent cast.Even if there were any serious flaws, they would pale into insignificance because of the high quality of the cast.Added 19 June 2015: No, it was not Louis Jean Heydt. It was James Millican, and it is an embarrassment for me to continually confuse the two. I think they do sound alike, but it was an error I need to correct here.