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Dial 1119 is a 1950 MGM film noir starring Marshall Thompson as a deranged escaped killer holding the customers of a bar hostage. The film was directed by Gerald Mayer, a nephew of studio head Louis B. Mayer, who had previously directed screen tests and short films for MGM.[2] The number 1119 in the title is a reference to the police emergency number used in the film. Plot Wyckoff unsuccessfully tries to locate Dr. Faron, first at his office and then at his home. As he leaves Faron’s apartment building, he notices that the Oasis Bar across the street will serve as a good vantage point from which to observe the entryway to the building. The bar is tended by Chuckles and his assistant Skip, whose wife is in the hospital giving birth. Chuckles, seeing a news flash story on the TV, recognizes Wyckoff and tries but fails to reach a pistol behind the bar. There are four patrons in the bar: the sluttish barfly Freddy, a young woman named Helen who is accompanied by an older man named Earl and newspaper reporter Harrison D. Barnes. Chuckles tries to phone the police, but Wyckoff shoots him dead as he is placing the call. Wyckoff orders the bar patrons to occupy one table, where he can keep an eye on them. The gunshot and Helen’s scream attract the attention of a beat cop, who approaches the bar and is shot in the leg by Wyckoff. Bystanders rescue the officer and a call is made for reinforcements. Wyckoff calls the police and demands that they keep their distance but deliver Dr. Faron, a police psychiatrist, to the bar within 25 minutes or else he will kill the hostages. The press begins TV coverage near the bar as the crowd of onlookers grows. Faron is found and brought to the bar, but the police captain resents Faron’s success for having defended Wyckoff and greatly reducing his sentence. As Faron pleads with the police to allow him to handle Wyckoff, they try to enter the bar undetected but Wyckoff hears them and then seriously wounds an officer. The police prepare to storm the bar with just two minutes left before Wyckoff’s deadline, but Faron first enters the bar. He tries to reason with Wyckoff, who becomes agitated and shoots Faron dead. The phone in the bar rings and Skip knows that it is the hospital calling about his wife. Desperate to answer, he fights Wyckoff. At the same moment, the police detonate an explosive charge and extinguish the lights. In the confusion, Freddy uses Chuckles’ hidden gun to shoot Wyckoff. In shock, Wyckoff staggers outside and is killed by police gunfire. Kneeling over Faron’s body, the police captain rhetorically asks, “How far does a man have to go to prove that he’s right?” Cast submitted by /u/Any-Pop1838 to u/Any-Pop1838 |