Dial 1119

Intriguing hostage drama. There's a great buildup and some nifty editing choices, although it often feels a bit stagey. Unfortunately, Marshall Thompson just isn't very good. In the beginning of the movie he has a strange menace to him, but the more he opens his mouth, the more silly he sounds. It's a shame because this movie has a lot of potential for greatness. And the rest of the cast is pretty good. It's just Thompson (and some half-assed attempts at psychology) that bring it down.

There was an aura about this psycho out on the town, but there was also a lot of dead time in between the brief extremes. The characters in the bar was mostly pointless too, specially when you consider how much screen time was dedicated to introduce them to the story, when they had so little to do with it. It was basically all about Marshall Thompson and what would make him snap. And those portions was great!

Absolutely loved this one and was fully engaged from start to finish. Great (though short) crime thriller.

It's a good setup for a noir film, crazy man escapes a mental hospital and takes some people hostage, and the execution of the central situation is quite good, if a bit thin. But too much of the film is spent outside, with the police, where the tension is overwrought and ineffective, and we get some messy messaging about mental illness. As a whole it's good, but could be much better

The appeal drains after they lose Conrad