Fox Film Noir, Wave Seven

Fourteen Hours (September 23/06)

Simple yet strangely compelling, Fourteen Hours stars Richard Basehart as Robert Cosick - a young man who sparks a media circus after he climbs onto a 15th floor ledge and refuses to talk to anyone but the cop who first spotted him (played by veteran character actor Paul Douglas). The film follows their conversations and the city's efforts to get him off that ledge, and the subplots that form on the ground and in the adjacent buildings (there's even a tentative romance between two bystanders!) Efficiently directed by Henry Hathaway, Fourteen Hours seems an odd choice for Fox's Film Noir collection - as the movie doesn't entirely fit the firmly-established criteria of the genre (the quasi-documentary feel and hard-bitten dialogue ultimately justifies the film's inclusion, sort of). The uniformly effective performances certainly go a long way towards cementing the vibe of authenticity, with Douglas a standout as the kind-hearted yet slightly impatient cop who unwittingly finds himself forced to cajole Robert out of taking a dive. Viewed in the 21st century, Fourteen Hours essentially comes off as a prolonged episode of Law and Order - though that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Though it boasts an utterly compelling opening ten minutes, Shock ultimately comes off as an unusually tedious piece of work. Anabel Shaw stars as Janet Stewart, a nervous young woman who checks into a hotel and waits patiently for the return of her husband (previously thought killed in action, he was actually a prisoner-of-war for a couple of years). That night, Janet watches helplessly from her window as a woman is murdered by her husband; when her husband arrives the next morning, he discovers her in a catatonic state of shock. Naturally, the psychiatrist assigned to her case is the very same man that Janet spied through her window, so it comes as no surprise that he insists upon transferring the woman to his private facility for treatment. Featuring a predictably smarmy performance from Vincent Price as the shrink/killer and the presence of a bonafide femme fatale within the cast of characters, Shock certainly possesses all the ingredients for what should've been a tight little film noir. But the 70-minute running time often feels a whole lot longer thanks to Eugene Ling's egregiously talky screenplay and the distinctly low-rent atmosphere, with the end result a film that's not even remotely as effective as its premise might've indicated.

A remake of the 1942 film I Wake Up Screaming, Vicki primarily revolves around the investigation that ensues after the titular character - an up-and-coming starlet - is murdered. The specifics of Vicki's short life play out via flashbacks, and we watch as an obsessive cop (Richard Boone) interrogates various suspects (including the chatty publicity man who orchestrated Vicki's transformation from waitress to bonafide celebrity). Directed by Harry Horner and featuring an appearance by prolific television producer Aaron Spelling (there's a reason he's not known for his acting, it turns out), Vicki generally has the feel of a contemporary crime show - though screenwriter Dwight Taylor offsets that vibe by including several unexpectedly and distinctly dark bits of comedy and an overall emphasis on the more hard-boiled aspects of the genre (ie the aforementioned obsessive cop is so determined that he sneaks into the apartment of a suspect and watches him sleep, in the hopes that the guy might unknowingly confess!) And although the whole thing never quite adds up to much - that the killer's identity is painfully obvious probably doesn't help matters - the movie remains a passable entry in Fox's Film Noir series.