pixrox1 Review of The Desperate Hours

The Desperate Hours (1955)

Is this a desperate plea for universal gun registration . . .

[7/10 · 8 February 2015]

. . . or a polemic against America's militarized police? THE DESPERATE HOURS end thanks to Dan's revolver being registered when it's found near Hal. They also end because as far back as 1955 (when DESPERATE came out) American cops could ape the East German border guards at the Berlin Wall at the drop of a hat. Within minutes any neighborhood in the U.S. could be cordoned off and turned into a killing box, complete with Kleig lights, snipers, and machine guns. I just heard on the news today about a 95-year-old WWII hero being gunned down in his nursing home this week by a trigger-happy cop. Since HE wasn't safe, NONE of us are. One of the doomed men in THE DESPERATE HOURS is mentally retarded, and mostly wants to play with toys. Another just desires a girl; the third, a cigar. It's not hard to sympathize with this hapless have-not trio. I read that if the names of all the Americans rubbed out by the police who "protect and serve" us were inscribed somewhere, that memorial would have to be nearly SIX times as big as the Vietnam War Wall, and the needed size expands daily. Many of these snuffed names would be those of "surviving" Vietnam War heroes. So it goes.