The Shadow on the Window

This film has the feel of a TV drama made into a B film. Saw it on cable recently as a curiosity since a young Jerry Matthews was in it. The drama, directed by William Asher, was a surprise.

The film is a police drama where a young mother, working as a free lance secretary for a farm owner, gets tangled in a break in that ends badly. Her young son, playing innocently outside watches the whole thing. What young Petey witnesses produce in his little mind a trauma that makes him run from the scene until he is found by two truckers going to market.

The movie was a product of the era in which takes place. Betty Garrett, as Linda, is perfect for the part. Also good was Phillip Carey, an actor that never had great opportunities in films. The scene stealer is Jerry Matthews, who played Beaver in the old series.

When the film begins, a group of punks are tormenting some people at a farmhouse. Soon, they kill the old man who lives there and the lady who is visiting (Betty Garrett) is being held captive...and all this is seen by her very young son (Jerry Mathers) who has been playing outside. Naturally, the boy is traumatized and he wanders off in a catatonic haze. Eventually he's found wandering along a highway and the kid is taken to the police. The boy is recognized-- -he's the son of one of the cops! The woman, apparently, is the cop's ex-wife. Can the police figure out where the woman and these sickos are in order to rescue her?

This is a tense and reasonably well made film. I particularly like the scene where the woman attempts an escape--it's surprisingly brutal. Well worth seeing and currently posted on YouTube.

SHADOW ON THE WINDOW starts out promisingly enough with JERRY MATHER witnessing a violent crime through a window, but then starts to sag as the police try to pry information from the dazed boy.

The male lead is detective PHILIP CAREY who gives such an indifferent performance when he learns his ex-wife is being held captive by some thugs that he fails to give the rest of the story any real sense of urgency. Nor does BETTY GARRET as the captured secretary who has to contend with three foolish young thugs, one of whom is played by JOHN BARRYMORE, JR. Unofortunately, all of the capture scenes are played with low-key intensity and suffer from a poor script.

What should have been a gripping police drama involving thugs and a victimized little boy and woman victim, is a tepid, almost amateurish attempt at suspense that produces more yawns than thrills.

Trivia note: Best performance among the thugs comes from COREY ALLEN, who played "Buzz" in the James Dean flick, REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. His chase scene provides the only real tense moments in the film.

Home invasion movies were popular during this period (1950's), maybe as a way of injecting fear into audiences from comfortably expanding suburbs. Here three young hoods invade an old man's home, kill him, while traumatizing the young son with his mother who's there as a stenographer. Unbeknownst to the hoods is that mom's the wife of a cop sergeant, so when the speechless boy is found, a police hunt is launched, led by the agonized husband father. So what will the quarreling hoods do with hostage mom as the cops close in.

It's an interesting cast with Barrymore Jr. as the murderous hood, Corey Allen from Rebel Without a Cause (1955) as the conflicted gang member, and Jerry Mathers of Leave It To Beaver (1957- 63) as the unfortunate boy. Also, probably shouldn't overlook actress Garrett as the mom, whose budding musical career was stymied by the Hollywood blacklist.

All in all, the flick's a pretty good suspenser of the sort that would soon transfer to TV, maybe The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Barrymore makes a convincingly nasty hood, while Garrett bears up as the terrified mom, even as Mathers manages a frozen face as the traumatized boy. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised his performance helped get him the defining Beaver role. There're also some good action sequences like the chase over rooftops that help pick up the indoor menace scenes. Also, battling among the three hoods offers interesting personality clashes, especially the woman-protecting Joey. Is he really stupid or just quietly enigmatic. On the whole, however, the 76-minutes is nothing special, but should keep watchers entertained as the crime drama plays out in fairly suspenseful fashion.

What a cast - Drew Barrymore's father, Edith Bunker's neighbor, the Beave, and Asa Buchanan on One Life to Live: John Drew Barrymore, Betty Garrett, Jerry Mathers, and Phil Carey.

Garrett plays a stenographer who is working for an elderly man at his house when intruders kill him and take the stenographer hostage.

Her little boy playing outside sees the violence, goes into shock, and runs away. When finally reunited with his police detective dad, he's catatonic and can't tell them anything.

My mom loved Phil Carey, a handsome, well built actor who later had success in TV. Betty Garrett, a Broadway actress and singer, has an emotional role and does it well.

John Drew Barrymore was handsome and menacing, but I gather his role as a ruthless killer wasn't much of a stretch.

Jerry Mathers I think had two lines.

I actually kind of liked this film's tension, and the fact that you really cared about Garrett. This home invasion type film is routine but involving.