GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Curt Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

bobatwan An engaging film despite a thin story line involving a psycho who's taken five hostages in a down-scale local bar. In Dial 1119, as in so many noir films, the locations, sets, and artifacts, are usually more interesting than the plot line. For me, the most remarkable feature of this film is the prominent TV set in the bar where most of the action takes place (the sport being watched is pro-wrestling). The bartender at one point claims it's 3 ft by 4 ft which would make it pretty large for a black and white 1950 TV anywhere. The TV though is more than a prop--it often dominates the screen and begins to take on a key role in the film when a TV reporter and camera crew from the cleverly named station WKYL arrive to cover the police rescue action, which is then seen broadcast on the bar TV. Not only is the TV now internally competing with the Motion Picture, but this must be a very early movie scene detailing TV news coverage. To make matters more interesting, one of the hostages is a disgruntled newspaper editor and so the film also depicts what will become a growing competition between TV and print journalism.

kenjha A man escapes from an asylum and holds people hostage in a bar, as the police try to meet his demands. This is a tense little thriller that is well made but there's not enough material within its running time of 75 minutes to add up to anything more than a curious diversion. Thompson is effective as the clean-cut psycho who goes about his business without showing any emotion except for an occasional smirk suggesting bemusement. Conrad plays "Chuckles" the bartender and he's pretty good, as is the rest of the cast, featuring such reliable veterans as Levene and Ames. The TV set in the bar looks like a flat panel! In his film debut, Mayer (nephew of Louis B.) directs competently.

whpratt1 Enjoyed this 1950 film which dealt with a mental patient who thinks he was a soldier during WW II and has a legal license to kill any one he decides to kill. This crazy person is played by Marshall Thompson, (Gunther Wyckoff) who is riding in a bus and sitting next to a lady who is trying to be friendly, but Gunther just looks straight ahead and views a gun that the bus driver had on his sun shade and just gets up and blows this driver away. Gunther eventually goes into a bar and locks all the customers in the bar and starts killing the bartender and threatens various other women in the bar. Gunther wants to have his Doctor John D. Faron visit him in the bar in order to prevent him from causing all this death to innocent people. There is plenty of tension in this bar and the women in the bar do their very best to try and over power this nut case.

Bucs1960 Marshall Thompson as an escaped crazed killer and general all-round psycho? I don't think so. He appears to be sleepwalking through his role as a very disturbed young man with issues about his psychiatrist. This could have been a turning point for this contract player but he didn't seem to be up to it. A couple of bursts of hysteria and that's about it.The story takes place in a small, rather cozy bar in Terminal City (get it?) that looks like the Big Apple. Thompson hold 6 people hostage, (well, really 5 since he guns down the bartender William Conrad right off the bat). He wants to meet up with his former doctor, played rather badly by Sam Levine, who convinced a jury that Thompson was insane, thereby having him sent to an asylum instead of the gas chamber. Needless to say, Thompson is ticked off, escapes from the asylum and threatens to kill the bar patrons unless Levine shows up for a face-to-face. This drags on for a while and Levine finally walks into the bar and proceeds to do what no self-respecting psychiatrist would even consider. Needless to say it doesn't work out and Levine is unceremoniously dispatched. Things get dicey, shots ring out, and then it's over.The supporting cast is one we all recognize (Andrea Leeds, Keefe Brasselle, Virginia Field, et al) and they do their best with a rather sparse script. This isn't the worst movie you've ever seen but it's not much. So Marshall Thompson rides off into the sunset to second rate roles and probably missed his big opportunity for stardom.