Desperate Hours (1990)

Interesting facts

• Based on: The Desperate Hours and The Desperate Hours
• Filmed in: Utah
• Awards: 0 · Nominations: 1

Desperate Hours is a 1990 American neo-noir action thriller film directed by Michael Cimino. It is a remake of the 1955 film of the same name and an adaptation the 1954 novel by Joseph Hayes, who also co-wrote the script with Cimino based on a treatment by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal. Cimino was not credited as writer on the finished product. The film stars Mickey Rourke and Anthony Hopkins, with Mimi Rogers, Kelly Lynch, Lindsay Crouse and Elias Koteas in supporting roles. It marks Cimino's third collaboration with Rourke, having previously worked with him on the films Heaven's Gate and Year of the Dragon.

Production

The project began at Paramount with Dino De Laurentiis attached as producer and Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal assigned to write the script. The film then moved to TriStar under Jeff Sagansky, with Christopher Cain to direct and Mickey Rourke to star. Cain left the project and was replaced by William Friedkin. Eventually Friedkin decided to make The Guardian and Rourke asked Michael Cimino to direct.

Filming took place from October to December 1989. Parts of the film were shot in Salt Lake City, Echo Junction, Orem, Zion, and Capitol Reef in Utah. The movie marked De Laurentiis' return to production after his 1988 bankruptcy. According to some official sources, director Cimino's original two and a half-hour cut of Desperate Hours was mutilated by the film's producers, resulting in a very badly edited film filled with plot holes.

One major scene—approximately eight minutes in length—which is not in the finished film, was shot at Brigham Young University's empty football field in Provo, Utah, and involved an outdoors confrontation between FBI agent Brenda Chandler (played by Lindsay Crouse) and Nancy Breyers (played by Kelly Lynch). It was allegedly cut because test audiences "read lesbian overtones" into their relationship.

Desperate Hours is minus one key scene—his other favourite moment in the movie—but on this occasion he is hopeful of having it restored. "The French find out right away if there's a scene missing from a movie, they're like detectives, and I think they've already asked for this one to be put back in. It was in my opinion the best scene I've ever directed. It's a four-minute scene, in one shot; there are no tricks, no cuts, it's pure performance."

The scene comes in the middle of the film, where at present there seems a slight ellipse. The agent Lindsay Crouse attempts to 'turn' Kelly Lynch by revealing that she herself was once attracted to a violent man. "She's telling the truth, using her life on Kelly, like an actress, so it's a diabolical scene, really. We made several quite good takes, but they were missing that really high note.

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