Vitor O
In an excellent portrayal of a hard-drinking and disillusioned father, Spencer Tracy is the best thing in this movie, besides the coloring process and the excellent special effects.
However, the pacing is a big problem. It takes too long for the things to start happening and, when it does, it all ends with a climax without a big impact. Also, the movie tackles a lot of big topics without developing them in a satisfacting manner.
Only one month later, Spencer went on to deliver another excellent and naturalistic performance as Judge Haywood, in the great "Judgement at Nuremberg".
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
03/15/25
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nick s
This wasn't bad, but nothing remarkable. It took an hour for the story to get started. Like many disaster stories the first phase is just developing the characters and there's no objective to the story.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
08/20/24
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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 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
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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 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/19/23
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Audience Member
I like Frank better when he's singing!
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
01/24/23
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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 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
01/21/23
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