Witness to Murder (1954) wasn’t the best thriller I have ever seen, but it did have its nail-biting moments. I was on the edge of my seat (quite literally) for most of the movie as Barbara Stanwyck did her best to get away from George Sanders.
We knew from the beginning of this one who the murderer was, so all we had to do was hold on for the ride and see if he found a way to shut down his accuser.
Description from TCM:
“In the 1954 Witness to Murder, Barbara Stanwyck plays a woman who, unable to sleep one night, looks across the courtyard from her apartment and sees a man choking a woman to death. The man is a pompous though obscure writer – he’s played by George Sanders – and there’s no doubt about what Stanwyck has witnessed.”
I’ve become a huge Sanders fan over the years. You might remember him in Hitchcock’s Rebecca. He was deliciously evil in that one. I also watched him in Lured with Lucille Ball.
Witness to Murder‘s plot is similar to Hitchcock’s Rear Window and that’s because was aimed at competing with Hitchcock’s movie. I’m not sure what they were thinking by trying that because the film was okay but it was no Rear Window.
The film was directed by Roy Rowland and, no, the plot wasn’t as tight as Rear Window (plus Rear Window was in color and this was in black and white) but Barbara and George’s performances make this one worth watching. I shouldn’t forget George Merrill, who was also very good.
“Sanders appears to be having a great deal of fun with this character, rolling his r’s with mischievous glee, making sure everyone knows how secure his place in the Universe is,” writes Stephanie Zacharek for TCM.com.
At one point he even rants in fluent German, which makes the scene even more spine-chilling and was probably even more chilling since it was only 10 years after the war and Nazis still lingered in everyone’s nightmares.
Zacharek calls the performance “slightly cartoony” and maybe it is, but I still liked it – well, as much as you can like watching a man mental torture a woman.
Barbara plays a strong, independent woman which makes her hysterical breakdowns a little odd at times – but then a lot of men are telling her she’s totally crazy.
What’s annoying about this part of the story is that their insistence that she’s crazy is absurd because they clearly know something bad has actually happened. Then again, men and women alike have been telling me for years that my various illnesses are in my head so I guess that part of the story isn’t too far fetched.
If you’re looking for a movie with an flawless story, maybe this isn’t for you, but if you like films with great performances that have you biting your nails and sliding to the edge of hour seat, then this is one for you. You can find it for free right now on YouTube.
It is also streaming on Netflix.
If you are interested in more reviews or blog posts about old movies, you can find a link to my past reviews at the top of the page and you can also visit The Classic Movie Blog Association.
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