Crazed killer Gunther Wyckoff escapes from a mental institution. He steals a gun and shoots the bus driver.
Escaped mental patient Gunther Wykoff goes on a rampage, killing at least three people. Most of the drama takes place in a seedy bar where Gunther holes up, taking six people hostage.
Marshall Thompson stars in this interesting thriller as Gunther Wyckoff, a mentally unstable young man who has escaped from an asylum, killed a bus driver with a gun he acquired, then holds a bar hostage with several people inside. Both the authorities and hostages try to work with and understand why Gunther is so crazed, with little success, though it does have something to do with his war record...
Dial 1119 was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer back in 1950. In fact, the name Mayer appears more than once in the opening credits (the director is Gerald Mayer, the nephew of studio chief Louis B.
It's 1950, and familiar TV faces abound in "Dial 1119": Marshall Thompson (Daktari), Sam Levene, Keefe Brasselle, William Conrad and Virginia Field. Thompson plays Gunther Wyckoff, a deeply disturbed man who, after shooting a bus driver with his own gun, walks into a bar and takes the patrons hostage.
Dial 1119 refers to the police emergency number extant in the days this picture was made (1950)-the precursor to 911. It's strictly a "B-list" production, directed by Gerald Mayer, nephew of Louis B.
An engaging film despite a thin story line involving a psycho who's taken five hostages in a down-scale local bar. In Dial 1119, as in so many noir films, the locations, sets, and artifacts, are usually more interesting than the plot line.
This story seems to repeat itself over and over again in movies, TV, and real life.An angry war veteran seizes hostages and/or murders innocents, and gains media attention and feedback -- in this movie, by means of telephone and television.
This one has it all. Once MGM gave the go-ahead for a sub-department to produce low-budget Film-Noir's they got it right.
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