On a day like any other

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Movie
German title On a day like any other
Original title The Desperate Hours
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1955
length 108 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director William Wyler
script Joseph Hayes
production William Wyler ,
Robert Wyler ,
Paramount
music Gail Kubik
camera Lee Garmes
cut Robert Swink
occupation
synchronization

On a Day Like Any Other (Original title: The Desperate Hours ) is a 1955 film directed by William Wyler with Humphrey Bogart and Fredric March in the lead roles. It is based on the play and novel of the same name by Joseph Hayes , who also wrote the screenplay .

action

Three escaped convicts break into the home of the middle-class Hilliard family and take family members hostage. The hostage takers with their leader Glenn Griffin are waiting for his friend Helen Lamar, who is supposed to bring them the money they need to escape. Under constant threat to their lives, the Griffin family is forced to maintain the family's "normal business" for a total of two days and nights. Dan Hilliard writes an anonymous letter to the police, indicating that a shootout would endanger the lives of innocents.

When the garbage collector Mr. Patterson accidentally discovers the criminals' car while picking up the newspapers, he is shot dead so that he cannot go to the police. The police under Deputy Sheriff Jesse Bard - Griffin's archenemy due to an earlier arrest - track down the hostage-takers.

Hal Griffin, the youngest hostage-taker and Glenn's brother, becomes too risky and flees under threat from a driver. At a diner out of town, he runs into police officers who notice him as he points his gun at them. After a brief shootout in which Hal uses a gun registered on Dan Hilliard, he is shot and rolled over by a truck with a trailer on a highway and dies.

Bard uses the weapon to determine the whereabouts of the remaining gangster duo. When Dan has picked up the money for Griffin and comes back, he is intercepted by the police. Some police officers want to storm the house. But the head FBI agent disagrees and gives Dan a gun, from which he removes the bullets. This is taken from him by Griffin when entering the house.

Dan manages to get rid of Kobish, the somewhat retarded third hostage-taker, with a ruse and remove his weapon, which ultimately dies in the hail of bullets from the police.

Dan sends his wife outside to the police. Meanwhile, Griffin has Ralphie in his power and threatens him with the gun he had previously taken from Dan. Dan tells his son to run. As he does so, Griffin finds that his gun is not firing. Dan now threatens Griffin with the gun and tells Griffin to leave his house. Finally he takes the unloaded gun and walks out. He throws her into a police spotlight and tries to escape, but is shot dead.

Ultimately, the family is liberated and Mr. Hilliard waves to Chuck Wright into the house, his daughter's admirer, whom he has always been critical of.

Motifs

The plot is supported by the clash of two "strong" men: the leader of the gangsters , Glenn Griffin, played by Humphrey Bogart in one of his last roles, and the father Dan Hilliard, played by Fredric March. Bogart plays a brutal but clever gangster who is also driven by hatred of the upper class. As an opponent, Fredric March is a father who finds himself caught in the dichotomy between personal responsibility towards his family and his responsibility as a citizen. The dispute between the two main opponents, who carefully assess each other, shows traits of a psychological chamber play .

The film is interesting not only because of its main storyline, but also because of the way it deals with a few "secondary subjects". These include, for example, the conflicting interests of the three gangsters between the cleverly calculating Glenn Griffin, his younger, generally positive brother Hal, who “learned everything from his brother - just not to live in such a house”, and the coarse one , violently-stupid Kobish. Within the Hilliard family, a father-son story is played out between the father and schoolchild Ralph, which deals with the role of man and masculinity. In relation to the adult daughter, father Hilliard has to learn to accept the presumptive son-in-law who cunningly plumbs the daughter out of the hostage situation. In the confrontation between Hilliard and the police action conducting sheriff of the conflict of interests is established between the intent on his re-election sheriff and of the hostage victims discussed.

A day like any other ends in the death of all gangsters without offering a classic " happy ending ". Too much has happened; there are no resplendent winners; In the final scene the family, expanded to include the prospective son-in-law, withdraws into their home and closes the door behind them. The very brief interview with the press - a reporter wants to interview little Ralph - does not take place. The film conveys the conservative image of the ideal “average family” of the 1950s: the father goes to work; he is the head who makes all essential decisions. The mother is responsible for the household and is a loving support to her husband in times of crisis; there is also an almost adult daughter and a small son. This family picture was z. B. also seen in the then popular television sitcoms of the 1950s.

Classification of film history

The film stands in the tradition of film noir and gangster films . It is also interesting as Bogart's “old work”. On the one hand, Bogart is visibly marked by his illness; on the other hand, after many roles in which he has embodied “heroes” on the side of the “good”, Bogart returns to a role as “bad” . However, this “bad” role is also broken: Bogart's Glenn Griffin is just as little “bad” through and through as Bogart's Rick was “good” through and through in Casablanca . Both are also shaped by interests and become more or less understandable in the film.

synchronization

role actor German Dubbing voice
Glenn Griffin Humphrey Bogart Wolfgang Lukschy
Dan Hilliard Fredric March Paul Wagner
Eleanor Hilliard Martha Scott Tilly Lauenstein
Sheriff Jesse Bard Arthur Kennedy Paul Klinger
Hal Griffin Dewey Martin Eckart Dux
Sam Kobish Robert Middleton Franz Nicklisch
Cindy Hilliard Mary Murphy Margot Leonard
Chuck Wright Gig Young Horst Niendorf
Mr. Patterson, garbage collector Walter Baldwin Hans Hessling
Sheriff Masters Ray Collins Alfred Haase
FBI agent Carson Whit Bissell Kurt Waitzmann
Ltd. Fredericks, State Police Ray Teal Robert Klupp
Dutch Pat Flaherty Hans Emons
Sal Ric Roman Bruno W. Pantel
Fast food cook Paul E. Burns Carl Heinz Carell
motorist Joe Flynn Toni Herbert

The film opened in theaters in the Federal Republic of Germany on March 2, 1956, and it was first broadcast on television on January 17, 1972 at 9 p.m. on ZDF .

Reviews

  • Lexicon of international film , CD-ROM edition, Systhema, Munich 1997: "A psychological study of human fear, the staging of which creates high tension - perfect in the acting."
  • Prisma Online: "William Wyler staged an imposing, enormously exciting psychological study on the connection between violence and fear. In addition to the remarkable directing, Bogey in particular shines in his last gangster role."
  • 6000 films. Critical notes from the cinema years 1945 to 1958 . Handbook V of the Catholic film criticism, 3rd edition, Verlag Haus Altenberg, Düsseldorf 1963, p. 22: "A psychological study of human fear which, under Wyler's direction, achieves the highest dramatic tension. Worth seeing as crime entertainment."
  • Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz in Lexicon "Films on TV" (extended new edition). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , p. 40: "(...) Bogart (...) gives the impressive portrait of a harried man, the staging develops tightly and dramatically." : 2½ stars = above average)

The Wiesbaden film evaluation agency awarded the production the title valuable .

Remake

Michael Cimino shot a remake in 1990 with the title Desperate Hours (English title: 24 hours in his power ). However, the film with Mickey Rourke , Anthony Hopkins and Mimi Rogers was a flop.

See also

We're Not Angels (1955) 1955 film with Humphrey Bogart. Three people who escaped from prison stay with a family.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Filmlexikon.de and Spiegel.de .

Web links