The Devil at 4 O’Clock ** (1961, Spencer Tracy, Frank Sinatra, Kerwin Mathews) – Classic Movie Review 10,257

Producer-director Mervyn LeRoy’s 1961 Eastman Color adventure drama The Devil at 4 O’Clock is based on a novel by Max Catto and stars Spencer Tracy as hard-drinking priest Father Matthew Doonan, who enlists the reluctant help of three jailbirds to evacuate a leper children’s hospital when a South Seas volcano erupts.

This plodding movie lacks the expected tension, suspense and excitement, but it is worth seeing for the decent acting of the strong cast, though they are struggling against Liam O’Brien’s uneven, slow-moving screenplay.

However, old-fashioned professionalism from director LeRoy brings out both the sentiment and at last action when the volcano finally erupts.

Also in the cast are Frank Sinatra, Kerwin Mathews, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Grégoire Aslan, Alexander Scourby, Barbara Luna, Cathy Lewis, Bernie Hamilton, Martin Brandt, Louis Merrill, Marcel Dalio, Thomas H Middleton, Ann Duggan, Louis Mercier, Michele Montau, Nanette Tanaka, Tony Maxwell, Norman Wright, Eugene Borden, Jean Del Val, Warren Hsieh, Moki Hana, Guy Lee, Robert M Luck and Robin Shimatsu.

Costing $5,721,786, it was then Columbia Pictures’s most expensive movie.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,257

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