An adaptation of a Norman Krasna play "Small Miracle" this still feels like a play - director Mitchell Leisen opens it up a bit but not a lot. It's a decent story- there were plans to remake it in the 40s with Alan Ladd and I would've liked to have seen that version with more gangster stuff.
Richard Barthemless is the crook who escaped and got caught and is being taken back to prison. The four hours to kill is the time they spend at a theatre show - most of the action takes place in the lobby which is cool.
A lot of the dialogue is theatrical. There's theatre style subplots - a young couple want to get together but are stopped by a vixen, a man worries about his wife giving birth. A married woman is going off to Reno.
Charles Wilson is the cop who likes Barthemless. Ray Milland is in this. Dorothy Tree is the vamp. Joe Morrison is the guy being blackmailed into marrying the vamp - so he did have sex with her, yes?
I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Mitchell Leisen was solid with comedy and musicals but this felt as though it needed more full throttle Warner Bros style treatment.
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