Fourteen Hours

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Fourteen Hours
Directed by	Henry Hathaway
Written by	John Paxton
Starring	Paul Douglas Richard Basehart Barbara Bel Geddes
Distributed by	Twentieth Century-Fox
Release date(s)	6 March 1951
Country	US
Language	English
IMDb profile

Fourteen Hours is a 1951 film about the efforts of a New York police officer (played by Paul Douglas) to stop a despondent man (Richard Basehart) from jumping from a building ledge. The otherwise fictional story was inspired by an actual standoff in New York in 1938 between police and a man attempting suicide, which drew crowds of bystanders and media coverage as hours went by. The film has a happy ending, in which the young man is saved by being caught in nets set up below him. In the actual standoff, New York City Patrolman Charles V. Glasco of Woodhaven, Queens strived in vain to convince John Warde that life was worth living. Glasco pretended to be a bellhop at the Gotham Hotel, and tried to persuade Warde that a suicide would be bad for business at the hotel. As the most recent hired, Glasco would be the first one let go if business at the hotel suffered. Although Warde was initially sympathetic to the plight of the bellhop who would lose his job if the hotel lost business, he eventually jumped.

The screenplay was written by John Paxton, based on an article by Joel Sayre in The New Yorker, and was directed by Henry Hathaway. It co-starred Barbara Bel Geddes, and was the first movie for both Grace Kelly and Jeffrey Hunter, who have supporting roles.