DIAL 1119

US, 1950, 76 minutes, Black and white.
Marshall Thompson, Virginia Field, Andrea King, Sam Levene, Leon Ames, Keefe Brasselle, Richard Rober, William Conrad.
Directed by Gerald Mayer.

Dial 1119 (also called The Violent Hour) is a supporting feature from MGM in 1950. It does not seem typical MGM material – though the company did make quite a number of similar supporting features in the 1950s.

Marshall Thompson portrays a psychologically damaged young man, imagining he had war experience, dreaming he wanted to be a hero, interned for murder, escaping from an asylum, killing a bus driver in cold blood, keeping five people in a diner under gunpoint – while calling for his psychiatrist to come to see him.

The film delineates the characters in the diner, establishing some back-stories so that the siege becomes more credible. One woman is a lush who stays in the bar trying to pick up men (Virginia Field). Leon Ames is a businessman who wants to take a young woman away on a weekend (Andrea King). Keefe Brasselle is an assistant barkeeper anxious to hear news of his wife’s giving birth. James Bell is a disillusioned reporter who wants to resign – and whose bosses won't listen to him when he rings up about the siege. Richard Rober is the chief of police, taking a hard line, especially concerning the psychiatrist (Sam Levene) who enabled the young man to escape the death penalty.

The film is interesting in the interplay of characters, in the situation of the man, the confrontation with the police, the psychiatrist going in to confront the young man, his death. The film is also interesting in its use of television – a television in the bar, which is used to get the information about the police investigation and the siege, as well as portraying the TV crews trying to get their stories – this in 1950, which is interesting in the light of later television news.

1. A brief thriller? The city? The city streets, the drugstores, the bars? The night setting? Black and white photography? The score?

2. The plausibility of the plot? The young man, his background, his psychological disturbance? His imagining that he was in the war? His wanting a justification for killing – where he would be commissioned to kill in war? His murders? The trial, the psychiatrist? His time in the institution, his escape?

3. The young man in the bus, emotionless? The woman sitting next to him and her concern, kindness? His not getting out of the bus at the stop? The missing gun? The woman warning the driver, the young man shooting the driver? His ringing his psychiatrist, his not being home?

4. Going into the bar, people’s reactions? His self-preoccupation? The gun, the shooting of the bartender? The others and his keeping them in the bar? The gun, sitting them down, his abrupt commands? His reaction to each of them, his slapping the woman? Finally allowing the reporter to ring the paper? Their not listening to him? The young man concerned about the hospital? The hysterics of the woman and her worrying about going away with the businessman? Her background and the sternness of her mother? Her answering the phone to the police?

5. The arrival of the police, the chief, the phone call? His hard line? Meeting Doctor Faron? Their arguments about Faron’s going in? Faron’s sense of duty? The police chief’s resentment about Faron getting the young man off the death penalty? The doctor going in, the talk with the young man, the explanation of his madness? His shooting the doctor?

6. The television crews? The interviews in the street? The tough attitudes of the bystanders? The barrier and the people coming? The television news people, getting a good story? The people in the bar seeing the television?

7. The group, sitting at the bar? The woman seeing the gun? The attempts to shoot the young man through the air-conditioning duct? His shooting back? The blasting in of the door, the lights going out, the woman shooting the young man, his shock?

8. The reactions of the various people in the group, the birth of the baby? The woman going home to her mother? The businessman staying – and getting friendly with the woman at the bar? The reporter and his having an exclusive on the story?

9. Popular ingredients for a thriller siege story?