The Devil at 4 O'clock poster & wallpaper

Spencer Tracy, Frank Sinatra, Kerwin Mathews

A crusty, eccentric priest recruits three reluctant convicts to help him rescue a children's leper colony from a Pacific island menaced by a smoldering volcano.

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53% liked it

92 ratings

Unrated, 126 min.

Directed by: Mervyn LeRoy

Release Date: October 18, 1961

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DVD Release Date: January 14, 2003

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Stats: 30 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (30)

  • jjnxn
    March 17, 2009
    jjnxn
    Starts off well but bogs down in the middle and never really recovers.
  • GeorgeBailey88
    December 16, 2008
    GeorgeBailey88
    Spencer Tracy, who at this point in his career was aging gracefully, plays Father Doonan, a lone priest on French island. He appears to bother the locals with his unorthodox approach to faith and community.

    One problem I have is the selfishness of the locals which at times bo...( read more)rders on lunacy, including the governor who controls everything with military force, often times kept in check by Tracy.

    The role Sinatra plays really could've been anybody and should've been somebody else. This wasn't Sinatra's fault, the character was just inconsistent with his talents. This was clearly a paycheck role for him. Of course, he also had to jump at a chance to work alongside a master actor such as Spencer Tracy so I'm sure that was part of the appeal to sign for the film.

    The plot deals with a leper camp for children located high on the mountain of the island. Doonan is using convict labor to build a hospital for the children. One of the convicts happens to be Sinatra. The island seems to be atheistic, even Father Doonan shows indications of his own loss of faith early in the film and doesn't truly get it back until a volcano erupts on the island, forcing the locals to evacute while Doonan and the three convicts are parachuted onto the mountain where the volcano has erupted from, to save the children at the camp.

    This is all rather ridiculous but makes for intriguing entertainment that you find in more modern films such as Dantes Peak.

    In the end, Doonan and a convict sacrifice themselves to aid the children across a dilapidated bridge. The ending is rather anti-climatic, if not depressing.
  • rindn5
    July 7, 2008
    rindn5
    Great movie...next on my list of movies to buy
  • anya60
    July 11, 2007
    anya60
    Excellent, intense and sad, but very good
  • CloudIsAMonkey
    July 8, 2007
    CloudIsAMonkey
    Again?

    I had drinks with him practically last week!

    Make him reschedule!
  • Roughead18
    January 21, 2007
    Roughead18
    wanna see it i cant wAIT LOL !!!
  • zabonsanyo
    June 11, 2006
    zabonsanyo
    one of the best ever. Marcel dies in a swamp, unforgettable scene.

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