Fourteen Hours

Infobox Film
name = Fourteen Hours


image_size =
caption =
director = Henry Hathaway
producer =
writer = John Paxton
narrator =
starring = Paul Douglas
Richard Basehart
Barbara Bel Geddes
music =
cinematography =
editing =
distributor = Twentieth Century-Fox
released = 6 March 1951
runtime =
country = flagicon|USA US
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0043560

"Fourteen Hours" is a 1951 film about the efforts of a New York police officer (played by Paul Douglas) to stop a despondent man (Richard Basehart) from jumping from a building ledge. The otherwise fictional story was inspired by an actual standoff in New York in 1938 between police and a man attempting suicide, which drew crowds of bystanders and media coverage as hours went by. The film has a happy ending, in which the young man is saved by being caught in nets set up below him. In the actual standoff, New York City Patrolman Charles V. Glasco of Woodhaven, Queens strived in vain to convince John Warde that life was worth living. Glasco pretended to be a bellhop at the Gotham Hotel, and tried to persuade Warde that a suicide would be bad for business at the hotel. As the most recent hired, Glasco would be the first one let go if business at the hotel suffered. Although Warde was initially sympathetic to the plight of the bellhop who would lose his job if the hotel lost business, he eventually jumped.

The screenplay was written by John Paxton, based on an article by Joel Sayre in "The New Yorker", and was directed by Henry Hathaway. It co-starred Barbara Bel Geddes, and was the first movie for both Grace Kelly and Jeffrey Hunter, who have supporting roles.

External links

*imdb title|id=0043560|title=Fourteen Hours