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      The Devil at 4 O'Clock

      1961 2h 6m Adventure List
      80% 5 Reviews Tomatometer 55% 500+ Ratings Audience Score Prisoners Harry (Frank Sinatra), Marcel (Gregoire Aslan) and Charlie (Bernie Hamilton) are flown to a small tropical island to serve the elderly Father Doonan (Spencer Tracy), who makes them work high in the mountains at a health clinic for local children. When a volcano erupts, the young patients are stranded, while the rest of the island's population flees. When Doonan offers to free the convicts if they help save the children, Harry leads his fellow convicts on a daring rescue mission. Read More Read Less

      Critics Reviews

      View All (5) Critics Reviews
      Clyde Gilmour Maclean's Magazine The story has its share of hokum but Tracy's performance has guts and honesty. Nov 14, 2019 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Rated: B Oct 16, 2012 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com The plot of Mervyn LeRoy's adventure is routine but the special effects are good (for its time) and it's well acted by Frank Sinatra as a convict and Spencer Tracy, again playing a priest. Rated: B- Jul 10, 2007 Full Review Steve Crum Dispatch-Tribune Newspapers Colorful disaster movie with good teaming of Tracy and Sinatra. Rated: 4/5 Dec 23, 2006 Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews The special effects were fine, and were about all that was salvageable from this disaster of a film. Rated: C- May 21, 2005 Full Review Read all reviews

      Audience Reviews

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      william k Old-fashioned disaster movie is a bit overlong and with quite a sentimental finale, but it's superior to later examples of the genre and addresses multiple issues of prejudice; Spencer Tracy is simply great as a troubled, alcoholic priest. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review r 9 Loved this. What an exception it is. I wasn't expecting much based on it being a disaster film from 1961, with a title suggesting horror rather than action. The characters are fairly diverse, too. I thoroughly enjoyed it all. Spencer Tracy is excellent as Matthew, he brings a lot of heart to the individual. Frank Sinatra is good in his role as Harry, who is accompanied robustly by Marcel (Grégoire Aslan) and Charlie (Bernie Hamilton). Alexander Scourby has a fine part too, portraying The Governor. 'The Devil at 4 O'Clock' paces itself correctly, features decent music from George Duning and, arguably most importantly, has strong humour and action. Also, the special effects have aged, relatively, nicely. If you get the opportunity, you should certainly give it a watch. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member I'd say you got two nice halves. I like the way they're put together. Three convicts are being transferred to Tahiti to be placed in prison when they get trapped on an island when a volcano erupts. The prisoners volunteer to work with a priest to save some trapped children. The task becomes daunting and more of an effort than any of them could have imagined. "Don't lock the door tonight, Cherie. I'm coming back with a big surprise." Mervyn LeRoy, director of The Bad Seed, Mister Roberts, Gypsy, Home Coming, Little Women (1948), The Heart of New York, and Three on a Match, delivers The Devil at 4 O'clock. The storyline for this picture is very interesting and contains fascinating characters. The script is clever and I enjoyed Frank Sinatra's character. The cast delivers very good performances and includes Kerwin Mathews, BarBara Luna, and Marcel Dalio. "God be with you." "Who is he?" "Search me. Never heard of the man." Netflix recently added a bunch of Frank Sinatra pictures to the online queue so I added them all to my wish list. This was very well done and entertaining. This isn't a classic or must own DVD, per se, but this does have well written and acted characters. I strongly recommend seeing this once if you're fan of classic films. "The mountain belched and is farting again." Grade: B Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/19/23 Full Review Audience Member I like Frank better when he's singing! Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review Audience Member Frank Sinatra is about as emotional as a brick in this film, however Spencer Tracy,Cathy Lewis,are great, BarBara Luna is excellent as the blind girl, but the bridge scene is so bad,at the end Sinatra goes back to rescue Tracy, but drives there in minuets, despite taking all of the children over a dangerous bridge, Why not use the safe road to start?Also the beam that hits Charlie is so large as it crushes his chest, yet only small scratches are visible, a huge piece of the bridge hitting him, would have killed him instantly Rated 2 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member A long haul of a film at over 2 hours. Drunken priest Spencer Tracy has lost his faith and is to be replaced by a new priest. He is living on a south seas island which is also highly volcanic.. Also on the island is a leper colony which the priest set up. Stuck on the island are three convicts one of which is Frank Sinatra who falls in love with one of the nurses at the leper colony who happens to be blind. The volcano blows and there begins a dash to rescue the children and there are a few lapses of faith. This is a well made film with some good acting and some average special effects. Fine performances from all especially Bernie Hamilton and also Frank Sinatra showing his excellent acting skills. Long but enjoyable. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/20/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      The Devil at 4 O'Clock

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      Movie Info

      Synopsis Prisoners Harry (Frank Sinatra), Marcel (Gregoire Aslan) and Charlie (Bernie Hamilton) are flown to a small tropical island to serve the elderly Father Doonan (Spencer Tracy), who makes them work high in the mountains at a health clinic for local children. When a volcano erupts, the young patients are stranded, while the rest of the island's population flees. When Doonan offers to free the convicts if they help save the children, Harry leads his fellow convicts on a daring rescue mission.
      Director
      Mervyn LeRoy
      Screenwriter
      Liam O'Brien
      Production Co
      Columbia Pictures Corporation
      Genre
      Adventure
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (DVD)
      Jan 14, 2003
      Runtime
      2h 6m