Four Hours to Kill! is a weirdly great 1930s lobby simulator

If you have about seventy minutes and you like movies that feel like a claustrophobic stage play, you should probably watch this. It is great for people who love fast-talking 1930s dialogue and those weirdly specific sets they used to build. If you need big action scenes or characters who act like normal people, you will probably hate it.

The whole thing takes place in the lobby of a Broadway theater. It’s such a strange choice for a setting, but it works. A detective named Anderson is stuck there with a killer, Tony Blake, because they have four hours to kill before their train leaves. Instead of going to a jail cell or a boring office, they just sit on a bench while rich people in tuxedos walk past them.

Richard Barthelmess plays the killer, and he is scary in a very quiet way. He doesn't scream or do anything big. He just sits there with his hands cuffed, watching everyone. You can tell he is thinking three steps ahead of the detective, who is mostly interested in reading his newspaper and being a bit of a jerk to everyone who talks to him.

The movie is based on a play called Small Miracle, and you can really tell. It has that vibe where people just happen to walk into the frame at exactly the right time to move the plot. It’s a bit messy, but in a way that feels human. Real life is kind of messy like that, right?

The Phone Booth Confessionals

One of the best things about this movie is how it uses the phone booths. Back then, phone booths were like these little private rooms. There is a whole subplot about a guy named Eddie who is trying to cheat on his wife, and he keeps running to the phones. The way the camera lingers on him through the glass is really cool. It feels like you are eavesdropping on something you shouldn't be seeing.

There is also this hat check girl, Flora. She is dealing with some drama with her boyfriend, and it feels like a totally different movie for a second. The film jumps between these different lives so fast it almost gives you whiplash. One minute we are talking about a murder, and the next, we are worried about a stolen watch. It shouldn't work, but it does.

"You got four hours to live, Tony. Why don't you try being nice?"

The detective says that, and it’s just so cold. The movie doesn't try to make the cops look like heroes. They are just tired guys doing a job. I really liked that. It felt more honest than a lot of other films from 1935.

The director, Mitchell Leisen, also did Torch Singer, and you can see he has a thing for these high-society settings that feel slightly fake. The lobby is beautiful, but it also feels like a trap. There are so many doors and mirrors. It's disorienting in a good way.

Small moments I noticed

• The way the detective keeps his hat on the whole time is so funny. He never takes it off. Not once.
• There is a guy who loses his opera glasses and he is way too upset about it. It becomes this weirdly long scene.
• Ray Milland shows up for about five minutes. He looks so young it’s almost hard to recognize him.
• The sound of the musical playing behind the doors is constant. It’s like this muffled reminder that everyone else is having fun while these people's lives are falling apart.

There is a scene where a guy tries to steal a watch from a coat pocket. It goes on for a long time. The tension isn't about the murder; it’s about whether this one guy is going to get caught being a petty thief. It’s these small stakes that make the movie feel real. It’s not just one big plot; it’s a dozen tiny ones bumping into each other.

The ending is very sudden. Like, really sudden. One minute things are happening, and then the lights go out and it's over. I kind of liked that. It didn't feel the need to explain every single thing. It just stopped. It felt like leaving a theater after the show is over and everyone just goes home.

If you’ve seen things like While Paris Sleeps, you know this kind of gritty, low-budget atmosphere. It’s not a masterpiece, but it’s interesting. It has a lot of energy for a movie where characters mostly just stand around and wait for a train. 🎬

I think the most honest part of the whole thing is how nobody in the theater really cares about the guy in handcuffs. They are too busy with their own problems. It’s a bit cynical, maybe. But it’s probably how a real Broadway crowd would react. They just want to see the show.

Anyway, it's worth a look if you can find it. It's a neat little time capsule of a movie. Not every scene is a winner, and some of the acting is a bit too much, but the vibe is spot on. It’s a movie that knows exactly what it is and doesn't try to be anything else.