The Devil at 4 O'Clock

Dir: Mervyn LeRoy

1961

****

In 1961, director Mervyn LeRoy made a film that would become the blueprint for the modern day disaster film and it still stands as one of the best of the genre. The origins of the title come from the proverb "It is hard for a man to be brave when he knows he is going to meet the devil at four o'clock". In the film, a small group find themselves trapped on a volcanic island during a ferocious eruption, at around four in the afternoon. Spencer Tracy stars alongside Frank Sinatra (but takes top billing as stated in his contract) and both are joined by supporting actors Bernie Hamilton, Kerwin Mathews, Jean-Pierre Aumont, BarBara Luna and a scene stealing Grégoire Aslan. Sinatra, Hamilton and Aslan play convicts on their way to a Tahiti prison. The transport plane they are on makes an overnight stop at the small fictional Island of Talua, somewhere in French Polynesia and the three prisoners, a priest (Mathews) they are travelling with and the two pilots stop of to stay the night. Meanwhile, the Island's alcoholic priest (Tracy), who is to be replaced by the new arrival, sets the three prisoners to work and gets them to build a hospital for the Island's leper colony. Everything comes to a head when the Island's volcano suddenly erupts after the locals believed it to be dormant. It is a tale of survival and redemption but has a wonderful undertone of moral ambiguity. There is a subtle look at what makes a hero and how one can be seen as heroic but ultimately it is just a great disaster flick. The character development is brilliant and really adds to the story. It's got two huge Hollywood stars but neither man rests on his name and both pull fantastic performances. Grégoire Aslan is the film's narrator in many respects, he is the life and soul but also the one who states the obvious when it needs to be stated and tells it very much as it is. The redemption message is clear by the end but is also ambiguous in that not every sacrifice is selfless. It leaves the film in a strange place just before the big surprise conclusion, giving this particular disaster film far more depth than the ones it would eventually spawn. Filming was troubled but you wouldn't know it when watching. Apparently, Sinatra would only film during the afternoon and due to his frailty, Tracy could only film in the morning before becoming overcome with tiredness. Sinatra would fly out to neighbouring islands asking startled villagers to vote for JFK while Tracy would film all of his scenes opposite a broom. Most of their scenes were edited to make it look like they were together when 90% of the time they weren't. The film was an amazing feat as it was, the two leading actors made it even more so, it's amazing that it was finished at all.