Directed by vet Henry Hathaway, Fourteen Hours (aka 14 Hours) is a well executed film noir, about a New York City police officer trying to stop a despondent man from jumping to his death from the 15th floor of a hotel.
John Paxton’s screenplay was based on an article by Joel Sayre in the New Yorker, about the 1938 suicide of John William Warde.
The film won critical acclaim for Richard Basehart, who played the mentally disturbed man on the building ledge, and Paul Douglas as the officer.
The large supporting cast includes Barbara Bel Geddes, Agnes Moorehead, Debra Paget, and Howard Da Silva.
The film marks the screen debut of Grace Kelly, who appeared in a small role, but would become a major star in the next three years, appealing in no less than three Hitchcock movies, and winning the Best Actress Oscar in 1954, for The Country Girl.