Is there a quicksand scene in this? - The Devil at 4 O'Clock (1961) Discussion

[–] sawyertom 19 years ago

Yes, there is. The French convict, Marcel, I think who bonds with a little boy is sucked it. He is carrying the boy, if I remember correctly as they are crossing a a watery area and they get sucked in. He manages to hand the boy off to the others in a heroic gesture before he is sucked down. He begs God to forgive him for his sins as he goes down. It gets Charlie to think about it afterwards and how he begged God for forgiveness.

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[–] aphrodite1022 18 years ago

Yes, that's exactly how it happens. Saw the movie when I was a kid and that scene horrified me. Just watched it again for the first time in 40-plus years, and I found the same scene extremely moving.

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[–] schappe1 15 years ago

I saw this years ago and just watched it again and that's the only scene I remembered. You know things are going to go badly for him because in every shot he is farther away from the others. It looks as if they could have pulled him out immediately but there were fumbling around because it was time for his character to go.

He's the one most worried about leporacy and it turns out to be the elast of his problems. The theme of the movie is overcoming fear and his character underscores it more than any toher.

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[–] JohnnyWeissmuller 15 years ago

And his character was the, so-called, `Butcher.`

NOW TARZAN MAKE WAR!

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[–] prettynoose69 12 years ago

I remember seeing this film when I was a kid and the quicksand scene gave me nightmares. The thing about Charlie (Bernie Hamilton) disturbed me too.

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[–] EmmaPopell 12 years ago

Me, too. I saw this film when I was only 10 years old and the quicksand scene was shocking to me. Years later, a friend of mine who is a surveyor got his feet stuck in some quicksand in West Texas, and it made me remember this film.
It was quite an impressionable film to an impressionable little girl....

I truly hope they run this film on some channel so others can see it.
It is a film that formed alot of different impressions in my mind, like that
bad people (the convicts) also have hearts of kindness, buried beneath their bad decisions. Many moving scenes, if I remember correctly...
But the quicksand scene is the one I remember the most!

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[–] rrjustron 12 years ago

I seem to remember it a little differently, the guy was sinking and Frank Sinatra's character was trying to save him; he tied a rope around himself while the guy kept sinking, I think that if Frank merely tossed one end of the rope to the guy, instead of wasting time tying the rope around himself, he could have been pulled out saftely.
At least that is the way I remember it.

Never depend on anything and you will never be disappointed.

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