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.

The premise for "Witness to Murder" is very good but the film suffers from one serious problem--the writing. In the movie, the police almost immediately assume that a person who reported a murder is either wrong or crazy. Maybe I am a bit naive, but I really don't believe that the police would be so fast to do this and would take a reported murder A LOT more seriously. However, in the world of this film, they very quickly assume this is the case...too quickly to be realistic. Later, other such stupid assumptions sink the film."Witness to Murder" begins, not surprisingly, with Barbara Stanwyck looking out her apartment window and seeing a woman being killed in an apartment across from hers. She does what any person would do--contacts the police. And, almost immediately they assume she is wrong! Later in the film one of the cops (Gary Merrill) starts to wonder and actually begins to do his job! But, the smooth killer contacts the idiot police Captain and convinces him that he's being harassed by Stanwyck--and they lock her in the loony bin! I was frustrated by the film--it just assumed something that the film simply didn't establish. Had they had Stanwyck ACT crazy or the police investigated thoroughly THEN they assumed she was wrong it COULD have worked well.Fortunately, the film did get better...for a while. Once Stanwyck was released from the hospital, Sanders actually torments her--telling her that he DID kill the lady but that now no one would believe her! This was great--and I really wanted to see more of this. But, it then gets stupid again when Sanders is in her apartment late in the film and a neighbors SEE this and hears Stanwyck cry for help, they immediately assume she's crazy--even though they have no idea about the investigation and police opinions about Stanwyck's sanity. If a neighbor cried out for help, I sure as heck would have done SOMETHING!!! The bottom line is that the acting is fine--the writing was not. However, it's is a VERY frustrating movie. It could have been good and had a good cast...but ultimately was crap due to wretched writing...just wretched.

Witness to Murder (1954)This talented, gripping crime drama is a little outside the party in many ways, and even now it shamefully falls under the radar with reviewers and on wikipedia. But if you overlook a couple of creaky elements, like the police carelessly revealing their witness to the killer at the start, you will find a great B-noir.I say B-noir because it was produced by Chester Erskine Productions (this is their only movie) and released by United Artists (who distributed lots of the independent small company releases). And this is interesting because the movie has a stellar cast. The leads alone are big name stuff, Barbara Stanwyck and George Sanders. But keep going down the list and you'll find both detectives are well known noir and drama actors (especially Gary Merrill), the apartment manager is the guy who shouts out the window in "It's a Wonderful Life," and there is the incomparable Juanita Moore (from Sirk's "Imitation of Life") in a insane asylum scene.Add to this ace noir cinematographer John Alton ("Border Incident" and "The Big Combo") and uncredited screenwriter Nunnally Johnson ("The Three Faces of Eve" etc.) and you have all the ingredients for a great movie. And it is great in many ways. The plot itself, which I don't like to spend time on, is a classic one--someone sees a murder out their window. And of course, the murderer finds out they've been seen. If this sounds like Hitchcock's "Rear Window" you are right, and there are many echoes, even with the killer showing up at the witness's apartment. But wait just a second--both movies are the same year. In fact, "Witness to Murder" was released first by nine months. At the time, it did fine at the box office, but it is history, and the vagaries of video release through various studios who buy and sell rights to these movies, that has forgotten this. And with the plot so similar to "Rear Window," the less flashy, black and white, low budget "Witness to Murder" never had a chance against the Technicolor Hitchcock release, which is a far more inventive masterpiece. Stanwyck and Sanders maybe be approaching their years of decline in popularity (Stanwyck had a second birth in television's "Thorn Birds"), but they are both great here. When Sanders breaks out in German, it's a shock because it is utterly convincing. And when Stanwyck does anything, like take the burning supper out of the oven, or light a match, or run for her life, she does it with modern, natural ease. This is a smart movie, and director Roy Rowland's best movie, from what I can tell--neither you nor I are likely to see any of the others (of his fifty movies, two are available on Netflix, DVD and streaming both).But see this one. It uses lots of clichés, but it uses the very well.

Roy Rowland directs this black & white mind-bending drama. Suspense grows as an interior decorator Cheryl Draper(Barbara Stanwyck)witnesses a murder in an apartment across the street. She is certain of what she saw; but then is there the chance she was dreaming? The killer in question is an author Albert Richter(George Sanders), who happens to have a dark past. The police seem determined to cease Cheryl's accusations that have no positive proof. A sympathetic detective Lawrence Mathews(Gary Merrill) tries to believe she saw what she saw; and tries to halt her playing detective on her own. Cheryl gets the impression she is Richter's next target. This mid 50's noir gets more suspenseful as it reaches a dramatic finale. Other players: Jesse White, Harry Shannon and Claire Carleton. With small uncredited roles: Claude Akins and Burt Mustin. Stanwyck, Sanders and Merrill work flawlessly.