The Devil at 4 O'Clock

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The Devil at 4 O'Clock
Directed by	Mervyn LeRoy
Produced by	Fred Kohlmar
Written by	Liam O'Brien (screenplay) Max Catto (novel)
Starring	Spencer Tracy Frank Sinatra
Music by	George Duning
Cinematography	Joseph F. Biroc
Editing by	Charles Nelson
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	October 18, 1961
Running time	126 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

The Devil at 4 O'Clock is a 1961 disaster film with elevated themes, starring Spencer Tracy and Frank Sinatra and directed by Mervyn LeRoy. Somewhat of a precursor to the disaster movies of the 1970s, such as The Poseidon Adventure, Earthquake, and The Towering Inferno, the movie The Devil at 4 O'Clock was far from being the first of the genre - and certainly not the last - but it has become somehwhat overshadowed in the light of later films of this sort and more popular and renowned Sinatra films which were released around the same time as this. At the time of release, Spencer Tracy said of Sinatra that " Nobody at Metro (M.G.M.) ever had the financial power Sinatra had today."

1 Plot
2 Special Effects
3 Critical Reception
4 Cast
5 External links

[edit] Plot

Set on a small tropical island, Father Doonan (Tracy), has been relieved of his duties by Father Perreau (Kerwin Matthews). Meanwhile, three convicts (Sinatra, Bernie Hamilton and Gregoire Aslan), enroute to Tahiti, make an unexpected stop on the island and they are put to work at a children's leper hospital. All is seemingly normal, until the island's volcano begins to erupt and the Governor (Alexander Scourby) orders an evacuation. But, the convicts, priests and leper children are located at the top of the island and have no sure way to escape to safety. All must work together if any are to survive.

[edit] Special Effects

Shot on location in Hawaii and California, a "Volcano" had to be specially built on farmland outside of Fallbrook, California, which was detonated using almost a ton of explosives. So good were the effects, that they have been re-used as stock footage over the years.

[edit] Critical Reception

Opening to mostly good, if not glowing reviews, Variety commented on the "exceptional special effects" and praised the acting, noting that "Tracy delivers one of his more colorful portrayals in his hard-drinking cleric who has lost faith in his God, walloping over a character which sparks entire action of film. Sinatra's role, first-class but minor in comparison, is overshadowed in interest by Aslan, one of the convicts in a stealing part who lightens some of the more dramatic action."

NME would say that "Although slightly sentimental, the films comes of well thanks to messrs Tracy and Sinatra."