The Devil at 4 O'Clock

Infobox_Film
name = The Devil at 4 O'Clock
imdb_id = 0054805
producer = Fred Kohlmar
director = Mervyn LeRoy
writer = Liam O'Brien (screenplay)
Max Catto (novel)
starring = Spencer Tracy
Frank Sinatra
music = George Duning
cinematography = Joseph F. Biroc
editing = Charles Nelson
distributor = Columbia Pictures
released = October 18, 1961
runtime = 126 min.
language = English

"The Devil at 4 O'Clock" is a 1961 disaster film with elevated themes, starring Spencer Tracy and Frank Sinatra and directed by Mervyn LeRoy. Somewhat of a precursor to the disaster movies of the 1970s, such as "The Poseidon Adventure", "Earthquake", and "The Towering Inferno", the movie "The Devil at 4 O'Clock" was far from being the first of the genre - and certainly not the last - but it has become somehwhat overshadowed in the light of later films of this sort and more popular and renowned Sinatra films which were released around the same time as this. At the time of release, Spencer Tracy said of Sinatra that " Nobody at Metro (MGM) ever had the financial power Sinatra had today."

Plot

Set on a small tropical island, Father Doonan (Tracy), has been relieved of his duties by Father Perreau (Kerwin Matthews). Meanwhile, three convicts (Sinatra, Bernie Hamilton and Gregoire Aslan), enroute to Tahiti, make an unexpected stop on the island and they are put to work at a children's leper hospital. All is seemingly normal, until the island's volcano begins to erupt and the Governor (Alexander Scourby) orders an evacuation. But, the convicts, priests and leper children are located at the top of the island and have no sure way to escape to safety. All must work together if any are to survive.

pecial Effects

Shot on location in Hawaii and California, a "volcano" had to be specially built on farmland outside of Fallbrook, California, which was detonated using almost a ton of explosives. The effects were considered so good that they have been re-used as stock footage over the years.

Critical reception

Opening to mostly good, if not glowing reviews, "Variety" commented on the "exceptional special effects" and praised the acting, noting that "Tracy delivers one of his more colorful portrayals in his hard-drinking cleric who has lost faith in his God, walloping over a character which sparks entire action of film. Sinatra's role, first-class but minor in comparison, is overshadowed in interest by Aslan, one of the convicts in a stealing part who lightens some of the more dramatic action."

"NME" would say that "Although slightly sentimental, the films comes off well thanks to messrs Tracy and Sinatra."

Cast

*Spencer Tracy – as Father Matthew Doonan
*Frank Sinatra – as Harry
*Grégoire Aslan – as Marcel
*Bernie Hamilton – as Charlie
*Jean-Pierre Aumont – as Jacques
*Kerwin Matthews – as Father Joseph Perreau
*Alexander Scourby – as The Governor
*Barbara Luna – as Camille
*Cathy Lewis – as Matron

External links

*imdb title|id=0054805|title=The Devil at 4 O'Clock

* Variety's Review: http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117790397.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&p=0