Guilty Witness

I won't recap the story. Enough people have already done that.

My question was at the ending. Was Mrs.

Verber telling the truth, or was she merely hurling accusations? It was not clear-cut to me, especially given that the woman was an emotional and mental mess. And Mrs. Krane's reaction was not a great tell, either. I was asking myself if I had the ending all wrong. It was one time when the "surprise" ending really was a surprise for me, but only because I didn't get it. My partner said it was clear to him, so maybe I am just being dense on this one. I kept saying, "Is it really what Mrs.

Verber is saying it is, or is she a drunken paranoid spouting off?"

I may have to watch again, which I rarely have to do with Hitchcock.

The episode is shown from the viewpoint of a grocer and his wife. Often, they can hear the upstairs neighbors arguing and fighting...but the husband keeps telling his wife that they should mind their own business. However, one of the fights ends very abruptly...so abruptly that the wife thinks one of the fighting neighbors was killed. At first, the husband STILL insists they mind their business...but after a while, he, too, is concerned...concerned enough to talk to the police.

The ending was mildly interesting...but otherwise the show was just okay...and the twist, though interesting, wasn't amazing either. Not a must-see episode...but one worth seeing.

I'll start with my thoughts on one of those points and then get to the meat of the episode.

Death smells. I remember one year an animal died up under the bathroom and the odor definitely wasn't pleasant. That's something up under the house, I can't imagine a body (especially something as large as a human) stinking up a place for very long before somebody notices a corpse around.

This episode centers on two couples. One couple (the Verbers) is quite dysfunctional and sadly children are involved. They're all the time getting into arguments, I'd say it was equal footing in terms of both of them smacking each other around.

The other couple are the Cranes. Mr. Crane runs the grocery store. Mr. Crane is a nice man but he also knows when to mind his own business. He realizes what he needs to do/not do when it concerns getting involved with anybody's business. He even cautions his wife about his attitude and loses his temper because Mrs. Crane is the opposite of Mr. Crane. She's all the time nosing about the Verbers business. I like how the episode plays out in some ways because you truly want to write Mrs. Crane off as just being a 'Gladys Kravitz' sort of character. She's got a nose problem and that's all there is to it. Nope, there's a lot more than that.

So much attention is being drawn that a cop comes around to investigate the whereabouts of Mr. Verber. Mr. Verber ends up being dead, killed by his wife. Mrs. Verber comes down the stairs and she confesses she was afraid of the cop. The cop wasn't going around telling who he was. He claimed to be a building inspector in order to search the premises. Mrs. Verber complains about her husband but then she pulls out a wild card over what Mr. Verber was about to do. He was about to leave her and go off with Mrs. Crane (!) The two ladies get into a cat fight as the camera pans over Mr. Crane looking like he's in a complete daze over the reveal that just happened.

This is an interesting episode but I question that twist ending. Would you really leave a steady and reliable husband to go off with somebody that's a womanizer and smacks his wife around? Really? I realize people might have their own tales to tell so perhaps I'm just being naive saying the above comment. Either way, it's still an excellent episode.

It is difficult to resist anything with a title as attention grabbing as this one. The premise is also great and could easily pass for a plot for a Hitchcock film, can see why it's been compared to one of Hitchcock's best films 'Rear Window'. Another interest point is that "Guilty Witness" is the third episode of 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' to be directed by series regular Robert Stevens, the other two being "Premonition" and "Our Cook's a Treasure". Both of them, especially the latter, being among Season 1's better episodes.

Did feel that "Guilty Witness" is not as good as those two and that it is not one of Stevens' best episodes (or one of his worst) or one of the best episodes of Season 1. It is though very good, though perhaps not for all tastes as some here have had issues with the story execution, and does generally very well with one of the season's most interesting sounding concepts. There is a lot to like about "Guilty Witness", almost all of them the usual good components, despite its imperfections.

Those imperfections being some suspension of disbelief needing in the final act, as some of it is on the silly and senseless side.

And that some of the character motivations came over as confused and vague, such as at the end. Can personally actually see why others were perplexed.

"Guilty Witness" has a lot of things done incredibly well. It is made with slickness and atmosphere, and manages to make a simple location interesting and not too confined. The music isn't over-powering or over-obvious and the theme tune for the series definitely haunts the mind. Hitchcock's bookending scenes have grown on me a good deal and while not among the best or most inspired they intrigue.

Much of the script does too and it doesn't ramble. The story is far from perfectly executed, but it is nicely paced and has genuine unease. Did find myself caring for finding out the truth and the final twist is a stroke of genius. The acting is very good, with a strong lead performance from Joe Mantell and a sympathetic one from Judith Evelyn.

Concluding, very good. 8/10.

This is a pretty pedestrian crime drama. It's about the frantic wife who hears a lot of violence going on in the upstairs apartment. He husband tells her to mind her own business, but then he becomes involved himself. The key to the whole thing is finding how a body would be disposed of. To modern viewers, this is a bit far fetched; at the time it was done, it was probably more believable, especially to a male dominated society (more male that is). Anyway, I believe this eventually evolves into a story about a person who is delusional. The acting is pretty believable. The final moment is pregnant with possibilities but the question is, "Why would someone bring suspicion to herself?" Or am I missing something?