Playing a fading baseball catcher named Monk with the split personality of a suspicious, wounded badger and a good time Charlie, Douglas is the salt in this film's requisite sweetness. Even though the incredibly hardworking actor was brand new to movies in 1949, his presence fills every scene he appears in with warmth, color and weight of the years and his own bulk that no acting school could teach.It would be the first of many sports related films for the actor.
To round out the weekend, Douglas made another appearance in a TCM premiere showing of the excellent Henry Hathaway movie, Fourteen Hours (1951), this morning, on the 1st of March at 9:30am and again on the 20th of this month at 10pm. If you love good acting, do yourself a favor. Don't miss these performances by a uniquely earthy character lead who, for a too brief period, made an indelible impression on American movies.
Fourteen Hours gives us Paul as Everyman in a cop suit, one Police Ofc. Charlie Dunnigan, with his anxious performance displaying a natural manner and sincerity. Paul Douglas also conveys more than is written in the script as he heroically tries to help a man on a ledge of a midtown Manhattan hotel, working impatiently against the youth's despair and his own department's flaws, particularly the pomposity shown by the upper echelon bureaucrats. Douglas plays a traffic cop in NYC who attempts to help a desperately suicidal young man (the sadly underrated Richard Basehart) on a ledge of a hotel. Fighting the brass, self-pitying parents, (Agnes Moorehead & Robert Keith, who are both fine in small roles), and fatigue, the actor performs what amounts to a tour de force, since without his solid, humane presence, the film, while catching the urban atmosphere nicely, would not hold up without the burly shoulders of Paul Douglas' talent to carry it. Btw, blink and you'll miss some future stars such as Grace Kelly, (in her first movie), and Jeffrey Hunter in this movie in brief roles. For me, however, it is the presence of the character actors Frank Faylen, Ossie Davis, Jeff Corey, Harvey Lembeck, and myriad others throughout this film that gives it texture and reality. One particularly nice scene comes after the big wheels from the NYC police have arrived in all their loudmouthed glory.
Paul Douglas with Martin Gabel as a psychiatrist in Fourteen Hours (1951).
Brushing off the mere traffic cop who has held things together for them, in an instant, we see the mix of embarrassment, resentment and resignation pass across Paul's mug, and, as he turns to leave, he physically seems to deflate a bit as he walks away, back toward the street. Another fine moment comes at the last scene, when, after Dunnigan's family arrive on the scene, Douglas' character is absorbed almost bodily into their garrulous embrace, all of them seemingly oblivious to his ordeal. It is then that we catch a glimpse of his inner life. For just an instant, we see that there is much about his everyday experiences that he can never fully explain to them, even as the exhausted Dunnigan tries valiantly to respond to their needs.
