A disaster movie , a decade before the seventies craze ;"the devil at four o'clock " has a first par which does not make the viewer use the fast forward button to get to the erupting vulcano .A modern "the last days of Pompeii " , the first part deals with faith ;Spencer Tracy is a colorful grumpy priest ,whose flock deserted him,because of his hospital for lepers which spoils tourism and scares the inhabitants of this island ; a younger colleague (Kerwin Matthews) has almost nothing to say and his part is almost pointless ; there's a French atmosphere ,which pilot Jean-Pierre Aumont 's delightful Parisian accent reinforces.As for the convicts , their role is thoroughly passive ,and it's hard to believe that these criminals (should we believe the governor) will become heroes in the second part. Maybe they've got nothing to lose;or they have been inspired,after Tracy saved them from an inhuman treatment .Tracy completely outshines his co-star Sinatra.
The devil of the title ,unless one speaks of the volcano (Hell?), is irrelevant,for the message is Christian : if the old priest puts again his faith in God ,three convicts redeem their soul:"there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent."(St Luke) ;That's why ,in spite of many implausibilities in the second part, the movie becomes more than the disaster movies of the following decade with their cardboard characters ."
The devil of the title ,unless one speaks of the volcano (Hell?), is irrelevant,for the message is Christian : if the old priest puts again his faith in God ,three convicts redeem their soul:"there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent."(St Luke) ;That's why ,in spite of many implausibilities in the second part, the movie becomes more than the disaster movies of the following decade with their cardboard characters ."