The 1950s novel by Joseph Hayes has been recycled as a stage vehicle for Paul Newman and Karl Malden (1955), then a film noir (1955) starring Humphrey Bogart and Fredric March (who replaced Spencer Tracey when the latter and Bogart argued about top billing), and finally remade as a neo-noir starring Mickey Rourke and Anthony Hopkins in 1990. The Desperate Hours was a hot property in the 1950s because its theme was a home invasion by escaped criminals, and how the family succeeded in maintaining home and hearth during the ordeal, which ended in the criminals’ capture by the police.

Humphrey Bogart reprises his breakout role of Duke Mantee (The Petrified Forest [1936]), now as Glenn Griffin, a career criminal protective of his younger brother, Hal (Dewey Martin) and in league with the brutish Sam Kobish (Robert Middleton). After the trio breaks out of an Indianapolis jail, they search for a suburban home in which to roost while waiting for Glenn’s sweetheart (unseen in this film) to send cash for the group’s escape from the country. They spy the Hilliard home and, thinking no one is home, they knock at the door. Eleanor Hilliard (Martha Scott) lets the criminals in. Once they are inside, the trio wait for the rest of the family to return—her son, Ralphie (Richard Eyer); her daughter, Cindy (Mary Murphy); and her husband, Dan (Fredric March).

The rest of the film consists of a cat-and-mouse game between the Hilliards and the criminals. After their initial shock and bewilderment

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