'The Devil at 4 O'Clock' poster
Among many highlights of my half-dozen trips to Maui was visiting historic Lahaina. Indeed, my two wives and I spent many hours enjoying the sights, sounds, food and ambiance of this colorful old whaling town.
The long line of balconied old wooden homes lining Front Street; many charming curio shops; the awesome 150-year-old multi-branched banyan tree; the gleaming white lighthouse at the water’s edge near idle sailing ships; the daunting gated old prison on aptly named Prison Street and the Pioneer Inn, all helped make Lahaina a must experience for tourists yearning to visit beautiful Hawaii.
As a lifelong cineaste, one of my most memorable discoveries was noting the pride of Lahaina business owners and residents over the 1961 big-screen movie, The Devil at 4 O’Clock, touted in fading “Made on Maui” posters inside and outside The Pioneer Inn, and elsewhere.
Upon hearing last week’s horrendous news about Lahaina, and the terrible loss of life, eerily similar events in The Devil at 4 O’Clock came rushing to my mind. In the film, Lahaina (unnamed in the movie and the entire island, called Talua) were destroyed when a volcano erupted, spawning an earthquake and red hot lava which flowed down mountain slopes, destroying everything—and everyone—in its relentless path.
To me, this is a prime example of life imitating art. So again watching my DVD of the movie, I kept thinking of how the devastation was filmed in the same location—with The Pioneer Inn and the town’s other landmarks prominently featured—and so similar to the destruction of Lahaina 62 years later.
Sinatra, Spencer Tracy and More
Beginning with these prophetic words on the screen, “It is hard for a man to be brave when he knows he is going to meet the devil at 4 O’ Clock,” the film’s fine cast—directed by Mervyn LeRoy—stood out. They endured harrowing obstacles leading hospitalized leper children down rocky mountain paths tied together in a line ahead of the thick, sizzling orange inferno.
Included was terminally ill, elderly, hard-drinking Spencer Tracy and young Kerwin Mathews as Roman Catholic priests; Frank Sinatra, Bernie Hamilton and Gregoire Aslan as scheming convicts who agree to parachute onto the mountain to help in return for reduced sentences; Jean-Pierre Aumont as the airplane pilot; Alexander Scourby as the governor; Barbara Luna as a beautiful young blind girl wooed by Sinatra, and Cathy Lewis as the mature hospital matron.
When the leper hospital collapses minutes after they leave, I couldn’t stop thinking of Lahaina last week. And watching each convict carrying a child, I was reminded of the acts of reported heroism by some town residents trying to help others.
The lava grows closer, and the crotchety Tracy finally begins to address Hamilton, who is Black, in a civil manner. And after confessing to the group that he has married Sinatra and the blind Luna, they approach a rotted timber bridge above the menacing lava.
As Tracy looks on, the burly Hamilton tries to support it with his back while the others, including Sinatra and his bride, cross safely. But as the volcano erupts again, the bridge collapses on him. Tracy comforts and cradles the dying Hamilton, saying, “This is a very good man, and his name is Charlie.” They then watch as Sinatra escorts the others into the town to board a waiting ship—the last one available.
When they reach the bottom, the town—like the real Lahaina—is burning out of control. As Sinatra’s tearful, blind bride gets on, he says to her, “I missed the boat a long time ago.” Then he makes his way through burning debris to the fallen bridge across the gorge from Tracy and Hamilton. And although he could still leave and possibly live, he stays put as the volcano explodes and destroys the mountain.
The Devil at 4 O’Clock ends as survivors watch from the boat as the whole island explodes. And once again, sad images of the devastated Lahaina I know so well, love so much, and remember so fondly, take center stage in my heart of hearts. Bad karma. And I can’t escape the eerie similarities of this exciting film and the real thing.
