The Tall Tower (1958)

D. Otto Preminger
B&W


There are so few ideas in the world that it’s unsurprising some overlap. It’s unsurprising that some films look basically the same as later much more famous films, almost as if the latter was an unofficial remake. We shouldn’t be suspicious though, we shouldn’t accuse – some films just fade from the collective memory, while others crash down on bloodied feet before smirking laconically to ensure you can never forget them.


As I’ve said before, this blog is for the neglected orphans of cinema.


See if this scenario sounds familiar: a New York detective calls into a tower block and finds himself caught in a battle of wills with suave European criminal who has taken hostages as he and his gang attempt to rob a vault in the basement.


Ah, I can see you nodding now. It’s ‘Die Hard’, isn’t it? That great classic of macho blockbuster cinema. We’ve all seen ‘Die Hard’. In fact my dad insists on watching it every single Christmas Eve. But imagine it’s ‘Die Hard’ in black & White, ‘Die Hard’ without explosions, ‘Die Hard’ with James Stewart as the cop and George Sanders as the criminal – and then you realise you’re actually watching ‘The Tall Tower’.


The difference between films of the 40s/50s/60s, where Hitchcock was the biggest and most mischievous boy in the sandpit, and the later blockbusting age is largely a matter of volume. Whereas it was the case that entertainment was provided by the taut dragged out tension and some truly startling moments, it became the norm for thrills to come by the way of bigger and bigger things blowing up. Indie films are understated, low budget horror can be understated (although more often is just tediously crap); but if you want a big tent-pole film with a major Hollywood star, then you want to rank up the volume and make things go ‘Bang!’ Now in terms of quality ‘Die Hard’ is one of the absolute best examples of this loud things go ‘Bang!’ genre (for the flip-side of the coin, see the ‘Transformers’ films), but it’s still a film where things go ‘Bang’. And the fact that it’s so loud and exciting and thrilling and there are loads of ‘bang-bang-bang’ explosions, makes the really subdued and understated style of ‘The Tall Tower’ look weirdly unthrilling.


No doubt an Alfred Hitchcock would have ramped up the suspense with this material, but Preminger has chosen his theme here as sweat. As the film progresses and the situation becomes more and more dangerous, Stewart is almost having flop sweats. He is dripping. Seriously, he looks quite unwell and one keeps expecting a kindly nurse to wander into shot and plug a drip into his arm. Sanders, on the other hand, prefers to glisten. Even at his most menacing, most in control (and with that voice, he was born to play sinister control), there’s still a sheen of moisture on his brow to illustrate the danger of the situation. Even suave European crooks feel nervous.


But the odd thing is that sense of danger is never as keen as it should be. This is a film which moves at a glacial pace, one which doesn’t so much draw out the tension as strap it to a rack and slowly and idly turn the handle, before popping off to have tea and biscuits. It’s a film which for a modern audience, having seen ‘Die Hard’, lacks much in the way of real urgency and thrills. Although that’s maybe unfair to modern audiences; if you compare it to a ‘Rear Window’ or a ‘North or Northwest’, then this film seems weirdly unengaging. It’s a movie which is happier staring in at the classy actors, than giving momentum to its plot. Indeed (SPOILER ALERT) it doesn’t even hint at things going ‘Bang’. As a sign of how understated and subdued it is, the villain isn’t even killed at the end. He is merely shot in the stomach and taken into custody. Job well done for the NYPD.


And yet for all its slowness and lack of drama, I would still prefer to watch this rather than something like ‘Transformers’. Obviously ‘Die Hard’ is miles better, but despite that we clearly lost something when we decided that things going ‘Bang’ was the be all and end all.