Witness to Murder

I have been a fan of Stanwycks since I was a child (now 55 yrs)..saw and thought I knew most of her films from mid 30's- on to the TV years. Somehow, Witness To Murder escaped me, until I saw it listed to be shown on TCM (thank you Ted), this weekend 11/23, I believe... I set my vcr, and was not disappointed, what an outstanding film noir this is.. yet no one ever mentions or discusses this one !!!Stanwyck is just as good as she was in Sorry Wrong Number, maybe more controlled... Plot is similar to Hitcocks Rear Window, but it has many more twists and turns. Supporting cast is great, including 2 All About Eve alumni.. George Sanders, playing a sadistic Nazi (yes) murderer his best work since Eve, and Gary Merrill, portraying a police detective...You can see future star and Oscar nominee, Juanita Moore, (Imitation of Life '58) in an assylum scene, very effective, and Jesse White, as Merrills partner giving some comic relief... Wow, couldnt stop watching... Great to see this ignored film from mid 1950's. Is it on tape ?? Aside #1: Gary Merrill was married to Bette Davis at the time... She and Stanwyck did not get along...I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when Gary came home from work... during the filming of Witness.

Aside# 2: Stanwyck was the most prolific actress in Hollywood history!! She just kept turning them out. I remember my parents taking us to our local theatre, Regent, in Newark, NJ.. and every other week so it seemed was a Stanwyck movie... We had just seen her in Titanic, and soon she would be in Executive Suite.... what a pro, what a career, what an actress... she was such a family favorite that my older sister was named after her, Barbara......

The John Alton photography is layered thick and shadowy in this late Film-Noir entry. Almost every scene is back lit with diagonals and impressions draping the proceedings and it is this atmospheric artistic display that highlights this often filmed story.

The characters and conventions of the Noir cycle by this time have become familiar but the shear broad strokes of the style are undeniably effective. The odd take on the villain being of Nazi descent with delusions of grandeur while meant to be of a deep personality flaw, is obtrusive and distracts from believability. It is an unwanted and unneeded take on the psychological persona of the killer.

The mental hospital scene is a standout as is the finale through the construction site. The only drag is the relentless unbelieving of the authorities that wears out its welcome fast but in the long view does not hold the film back from its better parts.

Witness to Murder (1954)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Great performances are somewhat wasted in this thriller that simply has way too many logical problems to really work. Cheryl (Barbara Stanwyck) wakes up one night and looks across the street to an open window where she sees a man (George Sanders) kill a woman. Cheryl goes to the police but they don't believe her and after a while they start to think she's the one that is crazy. She strikes up a relationship with the lead detective (Gary Merrill) but the only person who knows she's telling the truth is the killer himself. WITNESS TO MURDER features three great performances from the leads but sadly there are just way too many logic issues that keep this from being a complete winner. As many other reviewers have pointed out, there were times where I wanted to jump through the screen and just smack the detective and those helping on this case. It doesn't help that right from the start no one is taking the woman serious because if anyone had done the smallest amount of work then there were all sorts of signs that she was telling the truth. Another big problem is that the Sanders character can pretty much do whatever he wants, no matter how silly it is, and the police will never question it. After a while you pretty much just have to throw your hands in the air. Another major problem I had was with the music score, which was just constantly on and being way too dramatic for its own good. With that said, the three leads really make the film worth watching and especially Sanders who is terrific as the villain. He does a great job at playing this rather dark character and I loved the way the actor played it up to scare Stanwyck while playing it cool and collective whenever facing the police. Director Roy Rowland does a nice job with the ending, which contains some suspense but sadly the screenplay doesn't give him more to work with.

"Witness to Murder" is a small but interesting film starring Barbara Stanwyck, George Sanders, and Gary Merrill. By 1954, Stanwyck was 47 and no longer considered leading lady material. However, because she was such a great star and actress, she could still get good roles in big films, "Titanic" and "Executive Suite" being two that leap to mind. She could also, like Loretta Young, get stuck in B movies like this one and "Jeopardy." "Witness to Murder" isn't so much a B movie as it is closer to what one was seeing on television by 1954. And it's not a B cast.

Stanwyck plays a career woman, Cheryl, of a certain age who sees a woman murdered in the apartment across from hers. The apartment belongs to an author, Albert Richter, who emigrated to America after the war. Cheryl reports the murder but no one believes her. Richter is too smooth and always one step ahead of her with the police. Cheryl is considered an hysterical single woman who has delusions because she isn't married and probably going through menopause, though this isn't out and out stated. Completely outrageous and no doubt what actually went on at the time. These assumptions were just taken for granted in the '50s. There was something really wrong with a woman who never married. Read LOSER. A woman's goal in life was marriage; the career was just a stopgap until the ring was on the finger. What must it have been like for an intelligent woman to have that mantle put on her. In this film, the police detective (Gary Merrill) is interested enough in her to at least follow the case.

All of the acting is very good, with Stanwyck really shining as someone determined to get the truth out, even if she has to do a little detective work herself. Sanders is very effective as the villainous Richter, and he's pretty scary at the end of the film. The last 15 minutes or so are exciting and will have you on the edge of your seat.

This is actually a fairly derivative film bolstered by its stars. And you can't beat the opportunity to see the attitudes toward women played out in a realistic manner. Alas, there are still touches of it today.

Perhaps Barbara Stanwyck was looking to score another Oscar with Witness To Murder. Her fourth and final nomination was with Sorry Wrong Number. In that film she overhears a murder plot.

In this one she sees neighbor George Sanders commit a strangulation on some woman. But the police show up and no body and no signs of struggle. Still Stanwyck persists and detectives Gary Merrill and Jesse White do their best..

We learn too early that Sanders did the deed which robs us of suspense. Still Sanders is at his caddiest and that's always a treat.

The best scenes are Stanwyck in a mental ward and she's in with a lot of those you would have seen in the Snake Pit. Wonderful scene allowing all the players including Stanwyck to overact and stay in character.

Timing is everything and Witness To Murder was released first so it was no copycat. But Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window with the same premise and all those Hitch touches came out far superior and this film was forgotten.

Stanwyck and the cast do a good job though and Witness To Murder should not be forgotten.