What makes it different from others?

i know i wasted 90 mins of my life.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

***SPOILERS*** It's when the crazy mixed up Robert "Bobby" Cousick, decided to take a stroll on the ledge of the 15th floor of the Rodney Hotel on Saint Patrick's Day no less that had the entire downtown section of Manhattan came to a complete halt. The crazy guy had a number of family and girlfriend issues that drove him to try to off or kill himself but it was traffic cop on his morning coffee brake Charlie Dunnigan, Paul Douglas, who came on the scene trying to talk him out of doing himself in. As tension builds up thousands of new Yorkers as well as tourists gathered beneath the hotel to watch the show including two star struck lovers Ruth & stock and box boy Danny Kempner, Debra Paget & Jeffery Hunter, who ends up talking a walk down Wall Street arm and arm by the time the show or movie is finally over. There was also a bunch of taxi drivers taking bets when Cousick would take his fatal dive just to pass, since they weren't doing any business anyway, the time of day that after 14 hours went into the night.Up on the 15th floor Dunnigan does his best to talk Cousick out of killing himself but is interrupted by police top head shrinker or psychiatrist Dr. Strauss, Martin Gable, who's advice in what he should do, get in touch with his inner feelings, makes things worse not better. That as well as Cousick's parents his drama queen mom Christine, Agnes Moorehead, as just sobering up dad after spending all night in a local bar Paul, Robert Keith, who's very presents makes Cousick far more willing to off himself then not jumping. Finally we get to see the reason for Cousick's demented actions when his girlfriend Virginia Foster, Barbara Del Geddes, is brought in to talk some sense into his confused head. ***SPOILERS***It was Virginia who finally got to Cousick but as usual the police, with the exception of Officer Dunnigan,almost blew it by jumping the gun as he was about to come back into his hotel room setting up the exciting final heart dropping, of many, scene in the movie. Look for a young 21 year old Grace Kelly as Louise Ann Fuller who by watching all the action provided by Cousick from her lawyers office decided not to divorce her husband Thomas, James Warren, by seeing that some people in the world have far more problems that she and her husband do!P.S The movie was based on 26 year old John Warde who jumped to his death off the 17th floor of the Hotel Gotham on July 26, 1938. That after his sister made an off color remark about his mental status that drove him off the edge as well as the edge of the 17th floor of the hotel.

"Fourteen Hours" is a low budget offering with a simple plot and a relatively short running time but it's also an incredibly gripping drama about a disturbed young man who threatens to commit suicide by jumping off a skyscraper window ledge.The story's based on the real life incident which involved John Wilson Warde who on 26 July 1938 leapt to his death from one of the highest window ledges of the Hotel Gotham in New York City. Director Henry Hathaway filmed the action in a style which was very realistic and made good use of some strikingly effective camera angles. His approach was also one which avoided any tasteless sensationalism or sentimentality.Shortly after delivering breakfast to a hotel guest, a service waiter suddenly realises that the young man has stepped out onto the ledge outside of his room and is threatening to jump. The waiter reports what's happened to the hotel manager and at the same time, traffic cop Charlie Dunnigan (Paul Douglas) who is working on the street below, alerts his colleagues to what's going on before swiftly going up to the would be jumper's room. There Dunnigan poses as another hotel guest and starts a conversation with the troubled Robert Cosick (Richard Basehart) who despite Dunnigan's encouragement, refuses to step back into his room.Soon, the police, newspaper reporters and a couple of psychiatrists arrive, Dunnigan is ordered back to his traffic duty and outside a large crowd gathers and radio and television crews quickly set up their equipment. The psychiatrists discover that Robert is unwilling to speak to anyone but Dunnigan and so he's duly called back to the scene by Deputy Chief Moksar (Howard Da Silva).The police locate the young man's divorced parents but Robert only becomes more upset by the arrival of the hysterical Mrs Cosick (Agnes Moorehead) and also fails to communicate properly with his father (Robert Keith) from whom he's been estranged for many years. Next, Robert's ex-fiancée Virginia (Barbara Bel Geddes) is brought to the hotel but her intervention ultimately proves to be just as ineffective as that of his parents. Robert's predicament is eventually resolved but in a most unexpected way.In "Fourteen Hours", the despair of a solitary man on the ledge provides a stark contrast to the frantic activity of the large number of people in his hotel room. Similarly, this man's lonely and desperate life or death situation is seen as insignificant in a large city where the onlookers who watch him simply regard the whole incident as a gross inconvenience and even take bets on what time he'll jump.The story's subplots which involve a couple meeting in the crowd and falling in love and a woman changing her mind about proceeding with her planned divorce also emphasise how the lives of the city and its people drive relentlessly on because one person's crisis is totally insignificant in this kind of environment.Robert Cosick is a man with a history of mental problems and his instability at the time of his crisis on the ledge is explained as being caused by the inadequacies of his parents and the way he was treated by them.This movie has a cast who turn in some good performances but it's the contributions of Basehart and Douglas which really stand out. Basehart looks genuinely tormented and anxious and it's understandable that the strongest bond that he forms is with a man who has the type of qualities which would normally be associated with those of a conventional good natured father figure. Douglas is also excellent as the kindly and modest man who puts his sound personal qualities to good use in what for him is a very challenging situation.

I believe the revolving door in the hotel lobby was actually on the Hollywood set because I have never seen such a door that rotated both directions. You can see the handles on the door which would be for CCW rotation (normal) which it does early in the film. Towards the end, Dunnigan's son comes thru the door and he and his father go back out with it rotating CW. Real doors had a mechanism to prevent this because of the potential danger to users.WW II 60 inch searchlights did not have an exposed knife switch that turned them on. They had an enclosed switch due to the danger of exposed electrical contacts. The knife switch was something Hollywood stuck of the outside of the real switch in order to make the plot work. The light was probably turned on at another switch off camera. If you look carefully when the boy jumps and hits the switch, you can see a couple of black cables that were added and just tied on to the real ones (which are silver colored).

Richard Basehart was absolutely fabulous here as we feel his nervousness, his detachment from life, his hopelessness, and other problems.Paul Douglas, as the cop who Basehart is able to talk to, is great here. Ironically, in so many films Douglas always played the loud-mouthed person you could never count on to calm someone down.Agnes Moorehead gives a gem of a performance as the emotionally unbalanced, distraught mother. She blends into this performance a similarity to "Magnificent Ambersons" and can still be that holy terror as she displayed as Minnie in "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte."The picture again deals with mob psychology with some people anxiously awaiting Basehart to take the fatal plunge.Sidebars include Jeffrey Hunter and Debra Paget, as a young couple who meet among the mob and Grace Kelly, about to divorce her husband before this drama gives her a new lease on life and she is willing to try to sustain the marriage.Barbara Bel Geddes appears briefly as Virginia, the girlfriend to Robert (Baseheart) She is effective here.Martin Gabel's role as the psychologist fascinated me. How could he judge so soon after a brief meeting what the Moorehead and Robert Keith characters were all about? That was a little too far-fetched.Overall, a gripping drama showcasing the living of life to its fullest.