MovieChat Forums > The Desperate Hours (1955) Discussion > I was expecting more sympathetic villain...

I was expecting more sympathetic villains

posted 10 months ago by ReyRo (61)
2 replies | jump to latest

About halfway through the movie and pretty disappointed. I'm a fan of Humphrey Bogart so I was expecting the film to make him some kind of sympathetic villain... Instead I was just shocked how unlikable he is(and the other villains) here. He threatens to kick the kids face in, oggles the daughter in front of her father, screams and threatens the wife, and does nothing to hold back the ogre who picks the kid up and throws him. There is nothing likeable about these guys and I'm looking forward to them getting their comeuppance at the end. And if the movie tries to do a 180 and give Bogart some kind of redemption arc after the first half I'll roll my eyes to the back of my head.

[–] TrentnQuarantino (9187) 10 months ago

Back then they didn't really do sympathetic villains.

[–] ReyRo (61) 10 months ago

Maybe so...I suppose I was just surprised to see Bogart playing one though. In almost every movie I've seen him in he played the cynical man who still had a heart deep down. Here, he was just straight up evil. I came away cheering for the father who eventually got the upper hand and his acting really outshines Bogart's in this movie. And I've nothing against movies with truly evil villains, Richard Widmrk in Kiss of Death is one of my favorites but I guess I was just expecting more nuanced characters.