- Overview
After three years on the run, Jim Guthrie returns with the scar of a rope burn on his neck. In a flashback, we learn how he was framed for murder but then escaped from the lynch mob just as he was about to be hung. Tired of running, he has returned to find the real killer and the Sheriff has given him just three hours to do it.
- Release Date
04 November 1954
- DirectingAlfred L. Werker
- Budget
$0.00
- Revenue
$0.00
- Stars
Videos
User Reviews
See moreJohn Chard
16 May 2024
The Man With The Rope Scar On His Neck! Three Hours to Kill is directed by Alfred Werker and written by Richard Alan Simmons, Roy Huggins and Maxwell Shane. It stars Dana Andrews, Donna Reed, Stephen Elliott, Richard Coogan and Dianne Foster. Music is by Paul Sawtell and cinematography by Charles Lawton Jr. As solid as a boulder in Death Valley, Three Hours to Kill is a most satisfying Oater for genre fans not expecting boundary pushing. Plot has Andrews as Jim Guthrie, who is wrongly accused by the town folk of murder and promptly condemned to death by lynch mob. Escaping the rope by the skin of his neck, Guthrie bides his time for three years before heading back to the town to clear his name and nail the real murderer. His friend, the Sheriff, gives him three hours to complete his task before the law intervenes. What unfolds is a whodunit led by Andrews as he interrogates and puts the squeeze on a number of the town's denizens. There's a deliberately downbeat tone that serves the story well, with lost loves, unfulfilled lives and haunted memories of past doings permeating the narrative. The psychological undertones and risque aspects of the story are tantalisingly -frustratingly so - left to just simmer, but mood befits question marks in the plotting to keep one engaged. Action scenes are in the main no more than competently handled, but a couple are quite striking to raise the pulses. When the pic moves out of the confines of the town, the locales (Lake Sherwood, Sherwood Forest, Hidden Valley in Calif) are most striking and leave you hankering for a more airy picture as a whole. Cast are fine, Andrews toughs up for good perf, but as lovely as Reed and Foster are (in fact Foster is socko gorgeous), they are undone by standard writing and Reed comes off as looking bored. The ending carries a nice surprise, two fold in fact, to close the deal on what is an above average Oater to be enjoyed as easy sampling by genre fans. 6.5/10
More Like This
Double Jeopardy
Framed for the murder of her husband, Libby Parsons survives the long years in prison with two burning desires sustaining her -- finding her son...
See more
The Blue Dahlia
Soon after a veteran's return from war his cheating wife is found dead. He evades police in an attempt to find the real murderer.
See more
Psycho II
Norman Bates is declared sane and released from the facility in which he was being held, despite the complaints of Lila Loomis, sister of his most...
See more
Murder at 1600
A secretary is found dead in a White House bathroom during an international crisis, and Detective Harlan Regis is in charge of the investigation...
See more
The Invisible Man Returns
The owner of a coal mining operation, falsely imprisoned for fratricide, takes a drug to make him invisible, despite its side effect: gradual madness.
See more
Mr. Moto in Danger Island
In Puerto Rico to investigate a glut of contraband diamonds that are flooding the world's jewel market, Mr. Moto and his sidekick, a wrestler, find...
See more
Dial 999
A man tells his wife that the police are after him for having killed a bookie during an alcoholic binge, but that he is innocent and is being...
See more
The Rogues of London
A cleric's son saves a maid from suicide and she saves him when he is framed for killing a crook's mistress.
See more
Amsterdam
In the 1930s, three friends—a doctor, a nurse, and an attorney—witness a murder, become suspects themselves and uncover one of the most outrageous...
See more
Johnny Yuma
Infidelity, murder, and betrayal lies at the center of this violent Spaghetti western. A scheming wife does away with her husband, causing the...
See more
Survivor
A Foreign Service Officer in London tries to prevent a terrorist attack set to hit New York, but is forced to go on the run when she is framed for...
See more
Deadlocked
A young man is accused of rape and murder and placed on trial. His father doesn't believe that he is guilty, so in act of desperation he grabs the...
See more
Detour
A former thief driving through a small town is coerced into stealing a valuable statue but finds himself in hot water after he's accused of murder.
See more
Amish Affair
Hannah moves in with a charismatic Amish leader, Aaron, to help with his ailing wife. Seeking refuge after leaving her Amish community, Hannah is...
See more
In Defense of a Married Man
When a defense lawyer's adulterous husband becomes the prime suspect in the murder of the woman he was cheating with, his wife chooses to defend...
See more
The Argyle Secrets
A framed reporter and the crooks on his trail scramble to locate a book containing the names of American war profiteers and traitors who...
See more
Murder on the Roof
This primarily two-set programmer has a has-been criminal lawyer, Anthony Sommers (William V. Mong) wrongly accused of murder and follows the...
See more
Kiss of the Dragon
Liu Jian, an elite Chinese police officer, comes to Paris to arrest a Chinese drug lord. When Jian is betrayed by a French officer and framed for...
See more
The Shawshank Redemption
Imprisoned in the 1940s for the double murder of his wife and her lover, upstanding banker Andy Dufresne begins a new life at the Shawshank prison,...
See more
North by Northwest
Advertising man Roger Thornhill is mistaken for a spy, triggering a deadly cross-country chase.
See more